POWER November 2014 - 26

TOP PLANTS
Kudankulam Atomic Power
Project, Unit 1, Kudankulam,
Tamil Nadu, India
Owner/operator: Nuclear Power Corp. of India, Ltd.
Courtesy: International Atomic Energy Agency
Think your nuclear plant faced delays and obstacles? India's Kudankulam project,
Unit 1 of which begins commercial operation this month, spent 26 years in development
and construction and faced down obstacles that included a seven-month
blockade by protesters to become the nation's largest nuclear plant.
Thomas W. Overton, JD
T
here are power plant projects that
seem to drag on forever, and India's
Kudankulam Atomic Power Project is
a prime example. So why give it an award?
Just one reason is the number of challenges
it overcame: Development work on Unit 1,
which begins commercial operation this
month, commenced in 1988, but the project
survived the collapse of the Soviet Union,
international sanctions, interminable legal
obstacles, and local protests that at times descended
into riots. The Kudankulam complex
also is notable for being the first modern reactor
built in India using foreign technology.
Between 1974, when it tested an atomic
bomb, and 2008, India was barred from the
international nuclear trade by the Nuclear
Non-proliferation Treaty, to which it is not a
signatory. The Indian nuclear test led to the
formation of the Nuclear Suppliers Group
(NSG), a multinational body comprising most
of the world's nuclear powers, which was set
up to control the international trade in nuclear
technology, both military and civilian.
Barred as it was from foreign assistance, India
was forced to develop an entirely indigenous
nuclear power sector. The two exceptions were
the two-unit Tarapur complex built by General
Electric in 1969 and the two-unit CANDU com26
plex
at Rajasthan, which began construction in
the early 1970s; both plants have been run on
uranium imported under International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) supervision.
India's 16 other reactors were indigenously
designed pressurized heavy-water reactors
(PHWR). India's limited reserves of uranium
meant continual fuel supply problems for its
indigenous plants. Thus, it has had to develop
fuel reprocessing technology, as well as a
longer-term plan to employ its large reserves
of thorium-roughly 13% of the world's
known thorium reserves are in India-to
power its fleet.
The difficulties in developing significant
nuclear generation-all but one of India's indigenous
reactors are 202 MWe or less in capacity-meant
it continued to search for ways
to work around the international sanctions. One
such initiative was the genesis of Kudankulam.
Star-Crossed Nuclear Project
In November 1988, then-Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi and Soviet Premier Mikhail
Gorbachev signed an agreement to provide
a turnkey two-unit plant in Tamil Nadu state
using Soviet VVER reactor technology. The
USSR would supply both the plant and the
fuel, which would be returned when spent.
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But the project faced immediate geopolitical
roadblocks, as the USSR in 1988 was
already starting to come apart at the seams.
The following year saw Eastern European
nations under Soviet domination assert their
independence, and in 1991, the USSR itself
disintegrated. Though the Russian Federation
assumed the USSR's role under the Kudankulam
agreement, the economic crisis
that plagued Russia through the 1990s-its
economy would shrink 50% between 1990
and 1995-meant its ability to continue development
was severely handicapped. A
dispute between Russia and India over how
Kudankulam would be paid for also delayed
further progress. A 1992 revision to the NSG
agreement caused further troubles, as the
U.S. would assert that the project did not
comply with the new rules. Various Indian
officials would declare the project dead during
this period.
But the Kudankulam project would flare
back into life under some of the most unlikely
of circumstances. Tensions between India and
Pakistan during 1998 led to a series of competing
nuclear tests, actions that led to widespread
international condemnation and sanctions.
Yet within a month, Russia moved to revitalize
the Kudankulam plan with a new
POWER | November 2014
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POWER November 2014

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