Chennai:
Even as both Tamil Nadu and Kerala governments have written to the Centre seeking more power from the Kudankulam nuclear plant, the Indo-Russian joint venture is awaiting the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board's (AERB) clearance for commissioning of its first unit.
"The meeting with the AERB officials is scheduled to take place next week. Once we get a clearance from them, we will go ahead with other works relating to the commissioning of unit 1," RS Sundar, site director of the plant, told PTI over phone.
He said that the work at the plant was proceeding "smooth", and expressed hope of getting AERB clearance very soon.
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had recently written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking allotment of the entire 2000 MW to be generated by two units of the Kudankulam plant to the state, in view of the "severe power shortage".
She has said that the plant would go critical in the next 10 days and power generation would begin then.
Kerala too has staked claim for 500 MW from the project, with its Chief Minister Oomen Chandy wanting the Centre to allocate power from KNPP under 'unallocated' option, earmarked for states facing power crisis.
The over Rs 13000 crore project of the Department of Atomic Energy, now being worked on by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, has had to pass through turbulent situations with anti-nuclear activists demanding that the project be scrapped, citing safety concerns.