The Nuclear Vitality Firm of India Ltd (NPCIL) has acknowledged that the commissioning of the 1,000 MW Kudankulam Unit-4 will delayed, from August 2027 to December 2027, “ensuing from geopolitical challenges.”
Fashions 3 & 4 of the Kudankulam Nuclear Vitality Plant, 1,000 MW each, are being constructed for NPCIL by Atomstroyexport of Russia, a unit of the Russian vitality important, Rosatom. Fashions 1&2 are operational. Constructing of the third and fourth fashions began in June and October 2017.
After quite a lot of extended deadlines, NPCIL had acknowledged the enterprise date of operation of Fashions 3 & 4 may very well be 31st December 2026 and 31st August 2027, respectively. It has now suggested the Central Electrical power Regulatory Charge that Unit-4 may very well be commissioned solely in December 2027.
Earlier this month, the Division of Atomic Energy suggested the Greater House of the Parliament that the delay inside the commissioning of the Kudankulam plant was ensuing from “non availability of rock merchandise ensuing from stoppage of quarry operations by the (Russian) district administration” — a consequence of the Russia-Ukraine battle. It moreover attributed the delay to “the financial crunch of contractors and the affect of the Covid 19 pandemic moreover contributed to delays in problem execution.”
PFBR problem
Within the meantime, the 5 hundred MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, whose growth began in October 2004, has moreover “encountered delays”. The Division has suggested the Parliament the problem was “first of a kind” with many “technological challenges”. Presently, fuel loading is in progress and the problem stands 97.90% achieved.
The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) issued permission for Preliminary Fuel Loading (IFL) into the reactor core, First Technique to Criticality (FAC) and Low Vitality Physics Experiments (LPPE) for PFBR on the 16th of October, this yr. The loading of 37 sub-assemblies along with 28 fuel sub-assemblies into the reactor is in progress. “As quickly because the loading of all fuel sub-assemblies into the reactor core is achieved the next milestone is First Technique to Criticality,” the Division acknowledged.
Revealed on December 10, 2025