1988

November 20: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi sign the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project deal in New Delhi.

December 19: The foundation-laying ceremony is put off indefinitely due to widespread opposition to the project from the local populace. Agitators take out a massive rally at Tirunelveli.

1989

May 1: The coastal march 'Protect Waters, Protect Life' at Kanyakumari is broken up by driving a local transport bus into it. Six fishermen are badly injured in police firing. False cases are slapped on the protesters.

August 27: Over 120 organisations representing farmers, fishworkers, women, students, environmental groups, and representatives of various political parties (except the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India-Marxists) organise a meeting in Kanyakumari district. Thomas Kochery of the National Fishworkers Forum and Dr Kumaradhas, a local politician, lead the Anti-Koodankulam Committee.

1990

April 29: Demonstration in Nagercoil against the use of the Pechiparai dam water for the Kudankulam reactors.

1989-1991

The Soviet Union collapses. Gorbachev loses power. Rajiv Gandhi is killed. And Kudankulam project is shelved.

1997

March 21: American President Bill Clinton puts pressure on his Russian counterpart Boris Yeltsin at the Helsinki Summit to refrain him from building the nuclear reactors in Kudankulam.

March 25: Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign an agreement, a supplement to the 1988 pact, to commission a detailed report on the Kudankulam project. According to the deal, Russia would deliver two standard high-pressure VVER 1,000 water-cooled and water-moderated reactors that can produce 1,000 MW power per unit. Moscow would extend a $ 2.6 billion credit to India at four per cent annual interest to be paid back over 12 years after the commissioning of the first reactor.

September 9: Dr Hans Blix, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, say India's refusal to subject its installations to international inspection is likely to stand in the way of her imports of nuclear technology from the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

1998

January 23: An agreement on financial terms is reached. India suggests that a major part of the payment be made in hard currency (dollar) and the rest in rupees, but Russians insists on making the whole payment in hard currency. New Delhi finally agrees to make the entire payment in hard currency with some compromises on the payment mechanism.

June 21: Russian Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov and Indian Atomic Energy Commission Chairman R Chidambaram sign a supplementary accord in Delhi to go ahead with the Kudankulam project.

June 24: The US say the Russian decision to build nuclear reactors in Kudankulam is not good news, that it sends "a wrong signal at the wrong time". The reference is to India's May 1998 nuclear tests.

November 4: Russian and Indian nuclear engineers start working on a $ 57 million detailed project report. The reactors are expected to be ready by 2006 at a cost of roughly $ 3.1 billion.

1999

January: The National Alliance of People's Movements organise workshops on the dangers of the VVER 1,000 reactors with the help of Australian scientist John Hallam at Nagercoil, Tirunelveli and Madurai.

February 21: The Madras high court upholds the release of water from the Pechiparai dam in Kanyakumari district to the Kudankulam Atomic Power Plant. The annual demand of water for the project amounts to nine million cubic metre -- water needed to irrigate 945 acres.

November 14: Opponents of the Kudankulam project meet in Nagercoil, decide to revive their struggle, and founds the Anumin Nilaya Ethirpu Iyakkam (Nuclear Power Project Opposition Movement).

December 6: India and Russia decide to explore jointly gas hydrates, a new form of energy source, in the sea surrounding India. This is one of the 25 joint projects of the Integrated Long Term Programme of Co-operation in Science and Technology.

2000

January: Several hundred organisations and individuals from around the world appeal to the Indian and Russian authorities to scrap the Kudankulam project.