Minister downplays risks posed by ‘data breach’ at Kudankulam nuclear power plant
File photo of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant project in Tamil Nadu. | Photo credit: REUTERS
Minister of State for Atomic Energy Jitendra Singh played down concerns over a data breach involving electronic files linked to the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu. “This (breach) has nothing to do with nuclear power or nuclear security,” he told The Hindu on the sidelines of a press conference on Thursday (July 16, 2026). “There is no need for an immediate review because what happened is not related to nuclear activity.”
The nuclear establishment, on the face of it, does not seem concerned by this incident. A senior official of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) – the operator of the plant – told The Hindu that the organization is not currently considering a formal police investigation. “Right now we are not considering a first information report as there is a Reliance data breach – in fact Reliance could take such action if it wanted to. From our point of view, no security related data was shared (with Reliance Infrastructure Limited). That kind of BoP (Balance of Plant) information is shared with many companies,” HCP managing director Agrawal said.
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In a statement, NPCIL said on Wednesday that the allegedly leaked drawings and technical documents relate only to the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for the Common Services-Balance of Plant (BoP) package for Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) Units 3 and 4 awarded to Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. through a public contract for comparable thermal power plants. power plants and other process industries and are not connected to nuclear safety or security systems. BoP refers to the supporting infrastructure, auxiliary systems and components required to bring the plant into operation and does not include the core production facilities.
The state energy company stated that it shared only indicative drawings and technical specifications with the bidders as part of the tender process. Based on these inputs, Reliance Infrastructure, in consultation with the original manufacturers (OEMs), prepared detailed technical drawings, which were subsequently reviewed and accepted by NPCIL after verifying that they met the technical specifications of the project.
After commissioning two 1,000 Mwe VVER reactors, KKNPP is building four more similar units with Russian technical know-how at Kudankulam, where India’s largest nuclear park with reactors generating 6,000 MW of nuclear power is expected to be located.
According to a report by Reuters, more than 19,000 highly sensitive files from 2016 to mid-2025 related to KKNPP technical plans related to control, cooling and ventilation systems, list of vendors and suppliers supplying equipment, operational files of meeting records, reviews of joint inspections by Indian and Russian engineers, fuses, etc., were made available by world-famous ransies.
The leak is said to be from a server hosted by a third-party provider, Yotta, belonging to a plant supplier to Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group, which admitted there was a “partial breach”.
Published – 16 Jul 2026 19:16 IST