Chennai:
The controversial Kudankulam nuclear plant, which has witnessed widespread protests and several delays, is now a step closer towards generating power. On Saturday night, the nuclear reactor at the first unit of the plant attained criticality, and began the much-awaited nuclear fission process, in its journey towards making electricity.
The 1,000 MW reactor is one of two being set up by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), which operates the plant, with the help of Russian technology, and is located around 650 kilometres from Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu.
"At 23.05, the first reactor attained criticality and all the parameters are normal," RS Sundar, the site director of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP), told IANS.
The over Rs.17,000 crore project has started generating heat and steam from the 163 uranium fuel bundles - containing around 80 tonnes of uranium oxide - loaded in the reactor.
On July 11 night, armed with the clearance from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), the KNPP started its journey towards attaining criticality.
According to officials, several low power tests will be carried out in order to verify the conformance of the reactor characteristics to design objectives.
If the reports are satisfactory, then the AERB will give its clearance for the next stage, which is phase-wise increase in reactor power level.
At the first stage, the plant will be synchronised with the southern grid when power generation touches 400 MW. That is expected to happen in the next 30-45 days. After necessary regulatory clearances, the power generation will be increased gradually to 50 percent, 75 percent, 90 percent and finally 100 percent.
When that happens, the total installed nuclear power capacity in the country will go up to 5,780 MW.
KNPP is India's first pressurised water reactor belonging to the light water reactor category.
While the power from KNPP will be shared by the southern states, the lion's share will be for the home state of Tamil Nadu, which is suffering from a major power deficit.
"Tamil Nadu's share of the 1,000 MW will be 463 MW. As and when the power comes to our grid, it will certainly ease the power shortage to some extent," a senior official at Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd (TANGEDCO) told IANS.
"The utility sources power from various central power generating units at varied rates but less than Rs.3 per unit whereas the power from KNPP will be over Rs.3 per unit," he added.
As for the second unit at KNPP, there will be time lag of around six to eight months, RK Sinha, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) told IANS.
According to Mr Sinha, it was matter of time before the general framework agreement is signed with the Russian suppliers for the third and fourth units.
It is learnt that construction work for the administrative building for the next two units is progressing at the KNPP site.
According to him, the total outlay for the third and fourth units would be Rs 40,000 crore.
"The issue of liability of the suppliers in the case of an accident is one of the reasons for the signing of the agreement getting delayed," Mr Sinha said.
On the level of local content in the two proposed units, Mr Sinha said it is for NPCIL and the Russian parties to decide and it would be covered in the general framework agreement.
The KNPP is an outcome of the inter-governmental agreement between India and the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1988. However, construction began only in 2001 but was delayed mainly due to non-sequential supplies of components from Russian vendors.
Fearing for their safety in the wake of the nuclear accident at Fukushima in Japan in 2011, villagers in the vicinity of the Kudankulam plant, under the banner of People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), have been opposing the project.
City-based environmental activist G Sundarrajan had filed a case in the Supreme Court, demanding that the KNPP be scrapped. The court dismissed the case in May and laid down 15 directions for the NPCIL, the AERB, the Union Environment and Forest Ministry, the Tamil Nadu government and the state pollution control board to follow.
Mr Sundar, the KNPP site director, said the other nuclear power projects under construction are Kakrapar Atomic Power Project (2x700 MW), Rajasthan Atomic Power Project (2x700 MW) and the second unit at KNPP of 1,000 MW.
When all these come into play, the total nuclear power capacity in the country will be 9,580 MW, he said.