Chennai, Aug 9 - The loading of fuel for the first unit of the 2,000-MW Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadu will be the main agenda at the joint coordination committee meeting of the Nuclear Power Corp of India (NPCIL) and Russian agency AtomStroyExport, beginning Tuesday.

'The committee will review the project's progress. The first unit is expected to generate power early next year and the second is expected to go critical after that,' NPCIL's chairman and managing director S.K.Jain told IANS.

Fuel for the first unit came from Russia early 2008 and that for the second is expected soon.

NPCIL is building the mega project at Kudankulam, also India's first 1,000 MW reactor, by importing light water reactors from Russia.

Russia will supply four more such reactors, with two being located in Kudankulam. Jain said the negotiations for the purchase were on.

'Our basis of negotiations is that when the project is commissioned, the power cost will be equivalent to that supplied by coal fired power plants,' he added.

NPCIL brought down the project cost by undertaking construction work itself, and will now focus on increased localisation of components for the proposed four reactors.

He said the spent fuel will be reprocessed in India as per the deal with the Russians.

About NPCIL's projects, he said five - two each in Kudankulam and Rajasthan and one in Kaiga, Karnataka - were under construction and would be ready next year.

'Fuel for some of the units is dependent on India's talks with IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) on the separation of nuclear power plants (civil and strategic).'

The fifth and sixth units in Rajasthan, which are under safeguards, will be ready this October and fuel fabrication for them has started.

The fourth unit at Kaiga, which is outside the safeguards, will be powered with local fuel.