A delegation led by Russian Minister for Atomic Energy, Ivan Kamenskih, arrived on Thursday at Kundankulam in Tamil Nadu where two Russian nuclear plants are under advanced stages of construction.
Earlier, the delegation was supposed to arrive in India on July 30. However, it advanced its visit after the UPA government won the trust vote on July 22 in Lok Sabha, sources said.
The seven-member delegation includes top officials of Atomstroyexports, dealing in nuclear commerce.
The delegations is expected to discuss the progress of two VVER-1000 (1000 MW each) plants, which will be commissioned soon, with Indian officials led by NPCIL Chairman and Managing Director S K Jain.
They will also discuss the progress made on eight more proposed Russian reactors for India, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited sources said.
Russia, which had almost signed an agreement with India last year for eight more reactors of VVER-1000 type 1000 MW each at Kudankulam, could not proceed further as India had to get approval from the International Atomic Energy Agency and a waiver from the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Since the Indian government is now in a position to fast track these processes after the trust vote, the Russian delegation has not wasted time in meeting their Indian counterparts on further course of action, once the green signal comes from both the agencies.
The two reactors which are getting ready for commissioning after the arrival of complete load of fuel are under the earlier bilateral agreement between India and Russia.
Under that agreement, Russia will supply fuel for lifetime of the reactors. India is also allowed to reprocess the spent fuel that could be used for the same plants or as fuel for fast breeders.
All the Russian plants will be under the International safeguards arrangements.
The VVER-1000 type of 1000 MW nuclear power plants of Russia are based on the most advanced technologies. There are 52 such reactors in the world, of them 14 are operating in Russia.
