Indian contractor Larsen & Toubro has completed on schedule the installation of the 'dry shield' for the reactor pressure vessel of unit 3 of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant under construction in in Tamil Nadu. Separately, Russia's Atommash has announced the start of manufacturing a set of steam generators for unit 5 at the same plant.

The dry shield is a metal cylinder filled with serpentinite concrete that is placed around the reactor vessel. It serves to weaken the neutron flux, and also helps to prevent excessive heating of the reinforced concrete structure of the reactor shaft. The dry shield, which weighs 140 tonnes, was manufactured by JSC Tyazhmash in the city of Syzran, which is in the Samara region of Russia.

Atommash, a subsidiary of Russia’s Rosatom, has started manufacturing a set of steam generators for unit 5. The company produced the same equipment for the third and fourth units. Each item has a diameter of more than 4 metres, a length of about 15m and a weight of 340 tonnes.

Nuclear Power Corporation of India is building four new plants of 1000 MWe each in Kudankulam - units 3, 4, 5 and 6. Kudankulam 1 and 2 entered commercial operation in December 2014 and April 2017, respectively.