Chennai,  Russia's integrated nuclear power company, Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation, on Friday said it has shipped a steam generator for the upcoming 1,000 MW atomic power plant in Tamil Nadu's Kudankulam.

The steam generator is for the fourth unit that is being set up by India's atomic power company, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) in Kudankulam in Tirunelveli district.

The NPCIL is building four more plants of 1,000 MW units each - Units 3, 4, 5 and 6. The first two units of similar power generation capacity had gone on stream long back.

According to the statement issued by Rosatom, the item will be shipped by several means of transport to Tamil Nadu.

First, the steam generator was shipped by truck from the factory to a specialised berth on the Tsimlyansk water reservoir. Then, with means of an overhead travelling crane with a capacity of 650 tonnes, it was moved to a barge, and proceeded from there to St. Petersburg by the river route. From there to India, it will travel by sea around Europe and through the Suez Canal. Length of the route will be 21,000 km.

According to Rosatom, the steam generator is a horizontal cylindrical vessel with two elliptical heads, with its middle part having headers for supplying and removing hot coolant.

Its diameter is more than 4 m, length is about 15 m and the weight is 340 tonnes.

In the upper part of the vessel, there is steam space, and in the lower part, a heat exchange surface, which consists of 11,000 stainless steel tubes, 16 mm in diameter and 10 to 14 metres long. The ends of tubes are fixed in the two headers, the statement said.

Meanwhile, the first two 1,000 MW units at Kundankulam have stopped power generation.

According to the Power System Operation Corporation Ltd (POSOCO), the first unit stopped on May 31 to nourish uranium and the second unit stopped working on July 21 due to "generator transformer protection".

In May this year, the second unit was shut down due to high vibrations in its generator.

A team of six Russian specialists from turbine manufacturer Power Machines had come to Kudankulam to complete the vibration adjustment of the new generator stator in the second unit.