Russia's Rosatom delivers nuclear fuel to Kudankulam plant
New Delhi (PTI): Russia's state-run nuclear corporation has said it has delivered the first consignment of nuclear fuel for initial loading of the third reactor at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu.
The delivery of the nuclear fuel coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s arrival in New Delhi on a two-day visit.
A cargo flight operated by the Nuclear Fuel Division of Rosatom delivered fuel assemblies manufactured by the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant, the corporation said in a statement on Thursday.
A total of seven flights from Russia are planned to supply the entire reactor core and some reserve fuel. These shipments are provided under a contract signed in 2024, which includes fuel supply for the third and fourth VVER-1000 reactors of the Kudankulam plant for the entire service life, starting from initial loading.
The Kudankulam plant will have six VVER-1000 reactors with a total installed capacity of 6,000 MW.
The first two reactors at Kudankulam were connected to India’s power grid in 2013 and 2016.
The four other reactors are under construction.
During the operation of these two reactors in the first phase of the Kudankulam plant, Russian and Indian engineers have done considerable work to increase their efficiency through the introduction of advanced nuclear fuel and extended fuel cycles, Rosatom said.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
