Russia's Rosatom says two reactor vessels and eight steam generators are being shipped to Kudankulam unit 5 in India and Tianwan unit 7 in China, calling it the first time two sets of such equipment have been shipped at the same time from one production site.

The journey gets under way (Image: Rosatom)

The combined weight of the components is 3400 tonnes, with the shipment first travelling by road from Atommash, in the Volgodonsk area of Russia, to a specialised factory berth before being moved by barge to St Petersburg from where they will travel by sea to be delivered to India and China.

Igor Kotov, director general of JSC Atomenergomash, said: "Atommash proves once again that it is ready to cope with any of the most complex production tasks ... we also express our gratitude to our foreign partners: Chinese colleagues, in cooperation with whom the construction of the seventh power unit of the Tianwan NPP is being carried out, and Indian ones in the creation of unit No 5 of the Kudankulam NPP."

The Kudankulam nuclear power plant is about 100 kilometres from the port city of Tuticorin in the state of Tamil Nadu at the southern tip of India. The Russian export project has two large VVER-1000 reactors in operation while four more are currently under construction. Units 3 and 4 began construction in 2017 and units 5 and 6 followed in 2021.

In June 2018, Russia and China signed four agreements, including for the construction of two VVER-1200 reactors as units 7 and 8 of the Tianwan plant, in Jiangsu province, with work launched in May 2021 at a ceremony attended via video-link by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Tianwan 7 and 8 are scheduled to be commissioned in 2026-2027.