“The construction of power units No. 3, No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 is also underway. The plan is to complete the construction fully by 2027. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs has stated additional facilities search. In December 2021, New Delhi also promised to provide an area for construction of the second Russia-designed NPP,” state-run news agency TASS said.
The MEA statement also said: “At the Pavilion, the Prime Minister interacted with a group of Indian and Russian students. He encouraged them to look at future possibilities in the realm of science and technology, which could be harnessed for the benefit of future generations and for the planet.”
“Cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear technology is an important pillar of the multifaceted cooperation between India & Russia,” the MEA posted on X soon after the visit.
Likhachev also said that Rosatom wants to develop 4G nuclear technologies in India.
“We are currently developing the agenda of further cooperation. As we have tested each other and constructed very efficient relations in the present generation, the so-called 3+, we would like to move toward the fourth generation together,” he said.
TASS said quoting him from an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV news channel that those (the fourth generation) are fast reactors, fast-neutron reactors, there is further modification and development of our VVER technologies, water-water reactors, there is fuel cycle closure, as well as such groundwork areas as thermo-nuke and quantum technology.
Earlier on May 23, Department of Atomic Energy secretary Ajit Kumar Mohanty met with Likhachev and discussed ways to further bolster the nuclear energy cooperation between the two countries.
The two sides had visited the site of the Pilot Demonstration Energy Complex (PDEC) being built in Seversk, Tomsk region in Russia when a full-scale discussion took place on the prospective areas of the Russian-Indian cooperation in the nuclear field, a Rosatom statement had said then.
A week before that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said India is looking for additional sites for Russian nuclear reactors.