Indigenously made Rawatbhata nuclear plant in Rajasthan has created history by running continuously for a period 765 days, or a little over two years. With this achievement, the 220 MW reactor has beaten an American unit which ran for 739 days at a stretch.
Here are some must-know facts about the plant's dream run:
Question: What is the total cost of making the 220 MW Unit-5 of Rajasthan atomic power station? Answer: The RAPS-5 reactor cost about Rs 1200 crore to make and was completed in 2010.
Questions: How much time did it take to construct the reactor and what is the cost of the electricity it supplies? Answer: It was constructed in about seven years and supplies electricity at a fixed tariff of about Rs 3.43 per unit.
Question: What is the rough annual running cost of RAPS-5? Answer: Approximate running cost of RAPS unit-5 is Rs 230 crore.
Question: Annually, how much electricity does it produce? In Kilowatt hour and in units? Answer: At about 90% capacity factor (Plant Load Factor), the electricity production in a year by single unit is typically about 1700 million kWhr or 17,000 lakh units. At 100% capacity factor, the unit produces about 1900 million units.
Question: In this 765-day period how much electricity was produced? Answer: The generation during the period of uninterrupted run of 765 days of unit-5, is about 4258 Million kWhr or 42,580 lakh units.
Question: How much did RAPS-5 earn by selling electricity? Answer: Rs 1225 crore, a little more than the cost of installation of the plant.
Question: How many households this 220 MW reactor has lit up and where? Answer: About 25 lakh homes are lit by this reactor benefitting the northern states like Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh among others.
Question: Has any accident or radiation leak happened at RAPS-5? Has anybody died at RAPS in the same period? Answer: No death has taken place in all the six units during the record breaking period.
Question: To produce the same amount of power as RAPS-5 in these 765 days how much carbon dioxide would have been released? Answer: The carbon dioxide emitted in the production of one unit (kWhr) using coal fuel is about 1 kg. Therefore, the carbon-dioxide emissions avoided by RAPS-5 in its dream run is 4.25 million tonnes.
Question: To produce the same amount of power as RAPS-5 in these 765 days how much uranium has it burnt? How much coal would be required to produce the same amount of power? Answer: The uranium used in 765 days of operation of RAPS-5 is about 82 tonnes. The quantity of coal required to produce the same amount of electricity would have been 30 lakh tonnes.
