"During the second quarter of this year we expect to deliver fuel to the first reactor at the Kudankulam," head of the Russian Automic Energy Agency Sergei Kiriyenko told reporters as he visited the construction site of the plant.
In what is suspected to be the handiwork of anti-nuclear activists, a car of a contractor working at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project site was found gutted on Wednesday, as protesters met to draw up a strategy to oppose loading of fuel in the reactor.
The total nuclear power generated in the country would now increase to 3310 MW.
After 20 months of hectic negotiations, Iran and six major powers have reached a historic deal to limit Teheran's nuclear programme in return for lifting of sanctions. Let's understand closely what the deal is all about.
After three decades of hard work, and despite the devastating tsunami of 2004, the 500 megawatt Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam is coming up at a furious pace, says Shivanand Kanavi who visited the project site recently. It also happens to be the first tsunami-ready reactor in India.
'Despite almost $30 billion of funding since 2001, all the US reaps today is unmitigated hostility of a Pakistan emboldened to flaunt its China card.' 'How can the US give credence to any offers from Pakistan, which has trotted out the standard alibi of non-State actors time and again, including dreaded terror outfits being out of State control, Pakistan itself being a victim and so forth?'
Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Non-Proliferation Thomas Countryman said.
Japanese workers at the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant on Tuesday plugged a crack leaking highly toxic water into the sea from a concrete pit, though authorities were concerned about a possible hydrogen blast due to the build up of gas at a stricken reactor.
Top United States nuclear scientists have shockingly revealed in a report that Pakistan is enhancing its nuclear weapons and production capabilities.According to the report, which is yet to enter the public domain, Pakistan is readying a new nuclear capable ballistic missile for deployment and two nuclear capable cruise missiles. It is believed that this secretive and substantial arsenal build-up is targeted at India.
Marking a breakthrough in the protracted talks in the French Rafale jet deal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Friday that India will purchase 36 of these fighter planes that are ready to fly, citing critical operational requirement of the Indian Air Force.
United States President Barack Obama on Friday ordered a "comprehensive" safety review of all the nuclear power plants in the country in light of the current situation in Japan where high levels of radiation from quake-crippled reactors are threatening to spew-out disaster.
An agreement on the setting up of Unit three and four of the Russian-assisted Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadu is likely to be signed in the "near future", India said today, indicating the possibility during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Moscow next week.
'When the cause of the leak is identified, is the AERB going to order a shutdown of all the other pressurised heavy water reactors in the country to fix the underlying problem?'
After a lull, anti-nuclear activists against Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project are planning to intensify their stir and take a decision on Wednesday on laying siege to the plant, demanding a halt to the process of loading enriched fuel in the reactor.
Outgoing Ambassador Ronen Sen said on Sunday that the biggest legacy of the US-India civilian nuclear deal was not just civil nuclear cooperation that it would entail, but the restoration of trust between the two countries that was terribly eroded after Washington cut off nuclear fuel to India's Tarapur reactor following India first nuclear explosion in 1974.
Nuclear Power Corporation's first indigenous 700 Mega Watt Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor at Kakrapar Atomic Power Project in Gujarat is expected to be commissioned in 2015.
The Koodankulam atomic power project is expected to be commissioned in September, capping months of delays due to non-availability of equipment and anti-nuclear protests.
As India scalps its third nuclear deal this month, the vindication and the victory cannot hide the fact that the all-powerful Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which met in Christchurch, New Zealand last week, failed to dissuade China from supplying two nuclear power reactors to Pakistan in pursuance of two that had earlier been supplied.
With billions of dollars from contracts to be earned from India's ambitious nuclear power projects, the Japanese government has started intra-governmental negotiations to decide whether it should ink a civilian atomic pact with New Delhi, which is yet to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Secretary Tillerson met with Foreign Secretary Jaishankar on Friday to discuss the US-India relationship and the agenda for Prime Minister Modi's meetings at the White House on June 26, a State Department spokesman said told PTI.
Modi may take satisfaction from his display of considerable political skill in managing a mercurial, temperamental and unpredictable US president and nudging him into uncharacteristic restraint and even carefully orchestrated remarks. This personal chemistry will come in handy if Trump returns as president in the November elections, says former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
The deal with Iran does not address any of the major issues thrown up by Tehran's ambitions, says Claude Smadja.
Dr Suresh Moses Lee, who was one of the members of the panel of experts constituted by the Centre to examine the reactors of Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project, talks to rediff.com's Shobha Warrier about the safety aspects of the controversial plant.
Amid controversies, claims and counter-claims, the Centre has unveiled the text of safeguards agreement reached with IAEA. Under the agreement India will place its civilian nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards to facilitate full civil nuclear cooperation between India and members of IAEA.
The agreements were signed after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy in New Delhi.
'We need uranium to fuel our reactors. Our scientists and engineers have been handling uranium safely since 1967. They must not feel disheartened by the activities of well motivated local or foreign agencies.'
Giving a thumbs up to the Koodankulam nuclear power project, former President A P J Abdul Kalam on Sunday said he is "fully satisfied" with the safety measures incorporated in the mega power project.
Russia has completed delivery of nuclear fuel for India's Kudankulam Atomic Power Plant, which is in its final stages of construction in Tamil Nadu. According to Russian nuclear energy industry Atomenergoprom's website, the nuclear fuel rods consisting of not more than 4.1 per cent uranium-235 have been delivered strictly under the IAEA guidelines and contractual obligations. The fuels will suffice for the physical launch of one reactor.
Under fire for its handling of the atomic crisis at radiation-leaking Fukushima nuclear complex, the plant's operator on Sunday said it aims to stabilise the facility within six to nine months, as United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed unwavering support to tsunami-hit Japan during a solidarity visit to Tokyo.
Japan on Thursday made desperate efforts to douse overheating spent fuel rods at its quake-crippled reactors in the Fukushima plant, dumping tonnes of water using helicopters and water cannon trucks amid growing concerns of a nuclear disaster.
The reactors that exploded at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami are similar to those at Maharashtra's Tarapur atomic power plant. But does India need to worry?
Novarka will build a giant arch-shaped structure out of steel, 190 m (623 feet) wide and 200m long, which will cover the existing containment structure
Kim did not rule out diplomacy with the Biden administration despite that Pyongyang called Biden a 'rabid dog' after Biden labelled Kim a 'thug'.
Russia's global nuclear project company Atomstroyexport, which is building two 1000 MW reactors in Kudankulam, said the "complex issues" need to be addressed before firming up contracts for setting up two more atomic power plants.
Pushing ahead with the controversial Jaitapur atomic power plant, government on Wednesda said it has decided to have a stand-alone safety system in the designs of each reactors, two of which are expected to be operational by 2019 and announced a bill would be brought to create an autonomous nuclear regulatory body.
Anil Kakodkar will also discuss with IAEA representatives an Additional Protocol.
At 1:23 am on April 26, 1986, operators in the control room of Reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power facility botched a routine safety test, resulting in an explosion, and a fire that burned for 10 days.
