Finance for next Kudankulam units

Wednesday, 18 July 2012

India's contract for the third and fourth reactors to be built at Kudankulam comes with up to $3.5 billion in export finance, the country's officials said today after signing a deal in Moscow.

Kudankulam 1 and 2 are the first of eight

The sum would be enough to finance 85% of "the value of the works, supplies and services" provided by the Russian companies that would build the two Gidropress-designed VVER-1000 pressurized water reactors. A further credit line worth $800 million is available to cover fuel supplies. The credit lines carry interest at 4% per annum and would be repayable over 14 years and 4 years respectively, from one year after the start of power generation.

The Indian government said it expected to take up the credit offers to the value of $3.06 billion, about 53% of the $5.78 billion estimated total project cost. This would be in line with the finance for the first two units, which are in the commissioning phase now. Unit 1 should generate power within weeks with unit 2's schedule offset by seven months.

Completion of finance negotiations is a major step forward in the Kudankulam project, the overall framework for which was agreed in 1988 foreseeing six units, although eight are now planned. The deal was signed today in Moscow by Shri AP Joshi, special secretary for the Indian Department of Atomic Energy and Russian deputy finance minister Sergei Storchak.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News