Latest news with #VVER
The Hindu
09-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Civil defence preparedness drill conducted in Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project
In the wake of a full-fledged war-like situation with neighbouring Pakistan, the civil defence preparedness drill was conducted at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) on Friday. Since the KKNPP is operating 2 X 1,000 MW VVER reactors with Russian assistance and constructing four more reactors with similar capacity, the Central Industrial Security Force deployed there has sanitized the entire campus ever since the work started in 2001. Apart from the CISF, who guard the KKNPP site and its boundaries with neighbouring villages and the shoreline on the southern side, the Union Government has deployed modern ammunition including anti-aircraft weapon systems to neutralise the airborne threats. As the KKNPP has been categorised as 'high security complex', the civil defense preparedness drill was conducted for 85 minutes since 3.35 p.m. on Friday in the wake of the ongoing conflict with Pakistan to prepare the staff working in the nuclear power plant and the people living around to face any eventuality. After the 'plant emergency' was sounded at 3.35 p.m., the entire personnel in the KKNPP site were alerted for possible 'release of radiation'. Soon, the 'site emergency' was declared to alert the personnel for taking the precautionary measures stipulated by Atomic Energy Regulatory Board. Every worker were checked for radioactivity material on them by the technicians in specially designed fully covered dress. 'Even though this exercise is conducted at regular intervals on the KKNPP site to refresh the response by the personnel, we organised it today as part of the civil defence preparedness drill,' said the KKNPP sources. Sources in the intelligence units here said 'due measures' had been put in place at INS Kattabomman in Vijayanarayanam, the low frequency communication network nerve centre for Indian Navy, and its transmission centre on Palayamkottai outskirts and also Indian Space Research Organisation's Propulsion Research Complex at Mahendragiri. 'Both the places are high security complexes and hence these places have been declared as 'no drone zone'. Anyone flying drone in these areas in violation of restriction will be warned severely and even shot at in case of any threat to these installations. So, due measures have been put in place in these places to ensure the safety and security of these complexes and the personnel deployed there,' said the sources.
The Guardian
06-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Unsafe for Russia to restart Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Energoatom says
It would be unsafe for Russia to restart the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and would take Ukraine up to two years in peacetime if it regained control, the chief executive of the company that runs the vast six-reactor site has said. Petro Kotin, chief executive of Energoatom, said in an interview there were 'major problems' to overcome – including insufficient cooling water, personnel and incoming electricity supply – before it could start generating power again safely. The future of the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe's largest nuclear reactor, is a significant aspect of any negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. Seized by Russia in spring 2022 and shut down for safety reasons a few months later, it remains on the frontline of the conflict, close to the Dnipro River. Russia has said it intends to retain the site and switch it back on, without being specific as to when. Alexey Likhachev, head of Russian nuclear operator Rosatom, said in February it would be restarted when 'military and political conditions allow'. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has expressed an interest in taking control of it, though this possibility is considered very remote. Kotin said Energoatom was prepared to restart the plant but it would require Russian forces to be removed and the site to be de-mined and demilitarised. He said such a restart by Ukraine would take anywhere 'from two months to two years' in an environment 'without any threats from militaries', while a Russian restart during wartime 'would be impossible, even for one unit [reactor]'. Kotin said the six reactors could only be brought online after the completion of 27 safety programmes agreed with Ukraine's nuclear regulator, including testing the nuclear fuel in the reactor cores because it had exceeded a six-year 'design term'. That raises questions about whether Russia could restart the plant after a ceasefire without incurring significant risk. The plant was already unsafe, Kotin said, given that it was being used as 'a military base with military vehicles present' and there were 'probably some weapons and blasting materials' present as well. Russia has acknowledged that it has placed mines between the inner and outer perimeters of the plant 'to deter potential Ukrainian saboteurs' while inspectors from the IAEA nuclear watchdog have reported that armed troops and military personnel are present at the site. Last month, the US Department of Energy said the Zaporizhzhia plant was being operated by an 'inadequate and insufficently trained cadre of workers', with staffing levels at less than a third of prewar levels. The US briefing said Ukrainian reactors, though originally of the Soviet VVER design, had 'evolved differently' from their Russian counterparts and 'particularly the safety systems'. Russian-trained specialists acting as replacements for Ukrainian staff were 'inexperienced' in operating the Ukrainian variants, it said. Kotin said an attempt to restart the plant by Russia would almost certainly not be accepted or supported by Ukraine. It would require the reconnection of three additional 750kV high-voltage lines to come into the plant, he said. A nuclear reactor requires a significant amount of power for day-to-day operation, and three of the four high-voltage lines came from territories now under Russian occupation. 'They themselves destroyed the lines,' Kotin said, only for Russia to discover engineers could not rebuild them as the war continued, he added. Only two lines remain to maintain the site in cold shutdown, a 750kV line coming from Ukraine, and a further 330kV line – though on eight separate occasions shelling disrupted their supply of energy, forcing the plant to rely on backup generators. Experts say a pumping station has to be constructed at the site, because there is insufficient cooling water available. The June 2023 destruction by Russian soldiers of the Nova Kakhova dam downstream eliminated the easy supply of necessary water from the Dnipro river. Two civilians were reportedly killed by Russian missile attacks on Sunday, including one in a ballistic missile strike in an eastern district of Kyiv; while Russia said it captured a border village near Sumy in north-east Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had launched more than 1,460 guided aerial bombs, nearly 670 attack drones, and more than 30 missiles over the past week. The Ukrainian president said: 'The number of air attacks is increasing.' US-brokered ceasefire talks have only achieved limited results thus far. Both sides agreed to stop attacking energy targets, though each accuses the other of violations; while a maritime ceasefire agreed to by Ukraine has not been accepted by Russia. A Russian official involved in the negotiations said on Sunday that diplomatic contacts between Russia and the US could come again as early as next week.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Russia Planning to Build More Nuclear Reactors in Iran
Russian state-run nuclear energy giant Rosatom is in talks to build another nuclear power plant in Iran. The Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) on Feb. 23 said Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev discussed the plan at the Future Technologies Forum in Moscow, Russia. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visited Moscow in January to talk about a partnership deal between the two countries related to energy. Iran wants to increase its power generation capacity because of ongoing blackouts across the country due to a lack of available electricity. 'We are conducting another [round of] large-scale negotiations on the next site for developing nuclear energy in Iran,' Likhachev said at the forum in Moscow. The Rosatom chief executive said a site for a nuclear power station has been chosen, but did not reveal the location, saying only that 'the start of work is still a long way off. 'We see Iran's government taking an active stance in advancing nuclear energy. On our end, we are accelerating our efforts and are engaged in large-scale negotiations regarding the next site for nuclear energy development in Iran,' Likhachev said. Iran has one operating nuclear reactor, a 1,000-MW Russian-designed VVER unit at the southern port city of Bushehr, on the coast of the Persian Gulf. Two more VVER-1000 units are under construction at the site. Work on Unit 2 began in 2019, with commercial operation now expected in 2029 after earlier reports said the unit could come online last year. Iranian media reported that installation of safety equipment in Unit 2 began earlier in February, along with excavation works for the water cooling pump houses of both units. [caption id="attachment_180543" align="alignnone" width="640"] The Bushehr nuclear power station, a 1,000-MW facility, came online in 2013. It is Iran's only operating nuclear power plant. Source: Bushehr NPP[/caption] Construction of Unit 3 began last year. The expansion project would increase Bushehr's generation capacity to about 3,000 MW. Likhachev said Rosatom was 'very actively' working with Iran on the Bushehr expansion. Iran also is building a smaller, 300-MW nuclear plant in the Khuzestan province, near the country's western border with Iraq. That plant is scheduled to come online by 2030. Russia and Iran have been working to strengthen their bilateral cooperation around energy. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the two countries' agreements are part of a 'comprehensive strategic partnership. It sets ambitious goals and outlines guidelines for deepening bilateral cooperation in the long term.' —Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.
