The Cabinet Committee on Security has cleared the decks for building two more 1,000 MW nuclear power units at Kudankulam by giving the go-ahead to the Russian offer of about Rs 40,000 crore for the project days before it lapsed.

The decision came right after the Department of Atomic Energy informed the government that the first reactor in Kudankulam would go critical this month. The movement on the project is also vital to the tough stand the Jayalalithaa government in Tamil Nadu has taken against protesters in a bid to meet its poll claims to improve the power situation in the state.