Why in news?

The Russian state owned nuclear energy corporation Rosatom has offered a more advanced fuel option to India’s largest nuclear power station at Kudankulam, allowing its reactors to run for an extended two-year cycle without stopping to load fresh fuel

Highlights

• Rosatom’s nuclear fuel division, TVEL Fuel Company, is the current supplier of TVS– 2 M fuel for reactors generating power in the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project .
• This fuel has an 18-month fuel cycle, meaning that the reactor has to be stopped for fresh fuel loading every one-and-a half years.

What is the importance of new fuel?

• TVEL has now offered the more modern Advanced Technology Fuel (ATF), whose fuel cycle is a whopping 24 months.
• It will ensure more efficiency, additional power generation due to prolonged operation of the reactor
• Helps in sizeable savings of the foreign exchange needed to buy fresh fuel assemblies from Russia.

Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project

• It is the largest nuclear power station in India
• Location : Kudankulam in the Tirunelveli district of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu
• Funding : Russian
• Atomstroyexport, the Russian state company and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), with an installed capacity of 6,000 MW of electricity.