Chennai, Aug 31 - With the receipt of dummy fuel from Russia, India has moved a step forward towards commissioning the first unit of 2x1,000 MW Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadu.

IANS reliably learns that the dummy fuel landed in Tuticorin port Saturday and has reached Kudankulam where the Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd (NPCIL) is putting up the project with Russian equipment. Kudankulam is in Tirunelveli district, about 600 km from Chennai.

Dummy fuel is similar to real fuel in terms of weight and other features, but without uranium.

It will be inserted into the reactor core to test the functioning of all systems, a process technically called status of hot operation.

If the systems function as per norms, the real fuel will be loaded so that the reactor attains criticality.

However, power will flow to the grid after the nuclear scientists perform some experiments and increase gradually the power generation.

Two weeks ago, India received the first consignment of uranium from Russia for the second 1,000 MW unit at Kudankulam. The rest is expected soon.

The fuel consignment for the first unit came in early 2008.

Speaking to IANS earlier, NPCIL chief S.K. Jain had said the first unit was 94 percent complete and nearly 99 percent of the components were at the site.

He said the loading of fuel for the first unit would be completed by year-end and the dummy would be loaded.

The first unit would go on stream sometime early next year and the second would follow some eight months later.