OREANDA-NEWS. November 20, 2008. Director General of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation Sergey Kiriyenko, who visited the construction site of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (Tamilnadu, Southern India), today, Nov 20 2008, has pointed out progress in the construction.

“Today, we have seen significant changes at the two reactors and auxiliary facilities,” Kiriyenko said while opening a working conference after visiting the site. He thanked Indian and Russian engineers for “working hard for the sake of the general cause and not pointing at one another in case of problems.”

“This approach must be preserved,” Kiriyenko said.

Kiriyenko and President and Chief Managing Director of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India S.K.Jain inspected the finished facilities: fresh nuclear fuel storage site, sea water desalination plant, water conditioning workshop, complex power distribution system for transfer of power from the 1st to other units.

Kiriyenko also visited the land plot where Russia and India are planning to build four additional reactors under their inter-governmental agreement initialed in Feb 2008 during the visit of Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov to New Delhi. Kiriyenko stressed the strategic importance of Russian-Indian cooperation and pointed out the significance of Kudankulam NPP project.

The Indian director of the project K.C. Purohit and the executive director of Atomstroyexport CJSC Dan Belenky made reports on the course of the construction. The parties agreed to refresh the construction schedule adopted in Mar 2007. On Thursday, Nov 20, Kiriyenko is to meet with the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India, K.Anil Kakodkar.