File photo of the Kudankulam nuclear power project in Tamil Nadu.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS
Union Minister of State for Atomic Energy Jitendra Singh downplayed concerns regarding the data breach involving electronic files linked to the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu. “This (the breach) has nothing to do with the nuclear plant, or nuclear security,” he told The Hindu on the sidelines of a press conference on Thursday (July 16, 2026). “There’s no need for any immediate review because what has happened is not linked to nuclear activity”.The nuclear establishment, on the face of it, does not seem perturbed by the incident. A senior official of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) — the plant operator — told The Hindu that the organisation was not, at present, contemplating a formal police investigation. “Right now, we aren’t contemplating a First Information Report because it is Reliance’s data that has been breached – in fact Reliance could take such action, if they wished to. From our perspective, no data regarding safety has been shared [with Reliance Infrastructure Limited]. Such kind of information on BoP (Balance of Plant) is shared with many companies,” Prateek Agrawal, Executive Director (CP &CC), NPCIL, told The Hindu.No data leak about core generators: NPCILNPCIL said in a statement late on Wednesday, that the drawings and technical documents reportedly leaked relate only to the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for the Common Services–Balance of Plant (BoP) package of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) Units 3 and 4, which was awarded to Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. through a public tender in 2018. The corporation stressed that these facilities are conventional in nature, comparable to those used in thermal power plants and other process industries, and are not connected to nuclear safety or nuclear security systems. BoP refers to supporting infrastructure, auxiliary systems, and components required to make the plant operational and excludes the core generating equipment.The State-run utility said it had shared only indicative drawings and technical specifications with bidders as part of the tendering process. Based on these inputs, Reliance Infrastructure prepared detailed engineering drawings in consultation with the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), which were subsequently reviewed and accepted by NPCIL after verifying that they met the project’s technical specifications.After commissioning two 1,000 Mwe VVER reactors, the KKNPP is constructing four more similar units with Russian technical know-how at Kudankulam, which is all set to house India’s biggest nuclear park with reactors generating 6,000 MW nuclear power.According to a Reuters report, over 19,000 highly sensitive files dating between 2016 and mid-2025 and linked to KKNPP’s engineering blueprints on control, cooling and ventilation systems, list of vendors and suppliers supplying equipment, operational files on meeting records, reviews of joint inspection by the Indian and Russian engineers, insurance policies, etc., had been accessed by well-known ransomware group World Leaks.The leak reportedly originated from a server hosted by third party provider, Yotta, belonging to the plant’s contractor Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group, which has admitted that “partial breach” had happened. Published - July 16, 2026 07:16 pm IST
