Russia offers advanced fuel option for Kudankulam plant

• The Russian state-owned nuclear energy corporation Rosatom has offered a more advanced fuel option to India’s largest nuclear power station at Kudankulam, which will allow its reactors to run for an extended 2-year cycle without stopping to load fresh fuel.

Previous Fuel

• Rosatom’s nuclear fuel division, TVEL Fuel Company, is the current supplier of TVS – 2 M fuel for the two VVER 1,000 MWe reactors generating power in the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP).
• This fuel has an 18-month fuel cycle, meaning that the reactor has to be stopped for fresh fuel loading every one-and-a-half years.

New proposal

• TVEL has now offered the more modern Advanced Technology Fuel (ATF), whose fuel cycle is a whopping 24 months.

Benefits of the move

• This fuel will ensure more efficiency and additional power generation due to the prolonged operation of the reactor.
• It will result in sizable savings of the foreign exchange need to buy fresh fuel assemblies from Russia.

Prelims Take Away

• Kudankulam Nuclear power station