In 1988, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed an agreement for the building of Kudankulam 1, a nuclear power station built using Russian technology in Tamil Nadu. The plant came online only in 2013. Despite the delays, on Thursday, current Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country would be willing to build another 25 nuclear units in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the plans include at least 10 more nuclear reactors.
"I am pleased that the first unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant is on stream," Modi said, after signing a number of agreements with Putin. "It has added 20% to the existing capacity for nuclear power in India. We are on course for installing the next three units of 1000 MW each. Today, we have outlined an ambitious vision for nuclear energy of at least ten more reactors. It will have the highest standards of safety in the world."
But the recent history of Kudankulam unit 1 alone should make one sceptical about these promises. Even though it came online in July, 2013, unit 1 had actually been non-operative for the nearly five months, because of “technical snags.” With Putin arriving in India on December 11, authorities were forced to use equipment from Kudankulam unit 2, which is not online yet, to get the first unit going. The turbine of unit 2 was shifted to unit 1, allowing it to begin power generation in time for Putin’s visit.
Swapping parts
"In order to revive Unit 1, 'spare' parts (essentially extremely vital parts) were extracted from Unit 2 and placed in it, as if the Unit was just a stand-by for the first," says a note from Sunanda Mehta, a researcher with Greenpeace India's nuclear campaign, climate and energy division. "In a statement ahead of his visit, Mr. Putin stated that Russia had the resources to build as many as 25 new units in the country. While such collaborations may work wonderfully to strengthen political ties between the two countries, a closer look at the Kudankulam Plant is all one needs to understand the very real danger behind such a move for the public."
The last-minute revival of unit 1 is only the latest in a series of mishaps that have come in the way of smooth operations for Kudankulam over the last 25 years. The procurement director of the company in charge of supplying power generation equipment was arrested on charges of embezzling money and buying poor quality raw material.
According to Greenpeace, the plant itself has suffered "two major accidents, been subjected to 21 outages, 14 of which were Unplanned Trips and has had seven failed Commissioning attempts, all within the first year of it coming online. The Unit has worked only 182 days out of 365 days."
Greenpeace, which has been under the scanner of intelligence agencies and whom some in the government believe carry out "anti-national activities," has long carried out a campaign against the Kudankulam nuclear plant, arguing that it will have a terrible impact on the people living around it.
"I am pleased that the first unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant is on stream," Modi said, after signing a number of agreements with Putin. "It has added 20% to the existing capacity for nuclear power in India. We are on course for installing the next three units of 1000 MW each. Today, we have outlined an ambitious vision for nuclear energy of at least ten more reactors. It will have the highest standards of safety in the world."
But the recent history of Kudankulam unit 1 alone should make one sceptical about these promises. Even though it came online in July, 2013, unit 1 had actually been non-operative for the nearly five months, because of “technical snags.” With Putin arriving in India on December 11, authorities were forced to use equipment from Kudankulam unit 2, which is not online yet, to get the first unit going. The turbine of unit 2 was shifted to unit 1, allowing it to begin power generation in time for Putin’s visit.
Swapping parts
"In order to revive Unit 1, 'spare' parts (essentially extremely vital parts) were extracted from Unit 2 and placed in it, as if the Unit was just a stand-by for the first," says a note from Sunanda Mehta, a researcher with Greenpeace India's nuclear campaign, climate and energy division. "In a statement ahead of his visit, Mr. Putin stated that Russia had the resources to build as many as 25 new units in the country. While such collaborations may work wonderfully to strengthen political ties between the two countries, a closer look at the Kudankulam Plant is all one needs to understand the very real danger behind such a move for the public."
The last-minute revival of unit 1 is only the latest in a series of mishaps that have come in the way of smooth operations for Kudankulam over the last 25 years. The procurement director of the company in charge of supplying power generation equipment was arrested on charges of embezzling money and buying poor quality raw material.
According to Greenpeace, the plant itself has suffered "two major accidents, been subjected to 21 outages, 14 of which were Unplanned Trips and has had seven failed Commissioning attempts, all within the first year of it coming online. The Unit has worked only 182 days out of 365 days."
Greenpeace, which has been under the scanner of intelligence agencies and whom some in the government believe carry out "anti-national activities," has long carried out a campaign against the Kudankulam nuclear plant, arguing that it will have a terrible impact on the people living around it.
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