MOSCOW, June 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has supplied the first three batches of nuclear fuel for India's Kudankulam nuclear power plant, the state nuclear corporation, Atomenergoprom, said on Monday.

Russia is contracted to supply nuclear fuel for two reactors at the nuclear power plant it has been building in the southern Indian province of Tamil Nadu since 2002. The spent fuel will then be re-exported for processing.

"The fuel is being supplied in fuel rod assemblies, with uranium-235 enriched to no more than 4.1%," Atomenergoprom said in a statement.

"The total amount of fuel will be sufficient to load one reactor and reload it after a year of operation," the statement said, without disclosing how much fuel Kudankulam had received so far.

Atomstroyexport, Russia's nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly, is building the nuclear power plant in line with a 1988 deal between India and the former Soviet Union.

The company has already supplied over 83% of equipment specified in the contract to Kudankulam, including two VVER-1000 pressurized water reactors with a capacity of 1,000 MWe each.

There are currently 17 operating nuclear reactors in India and the country has announced plans to build six more in the future.