 "Kudankulam nuclear plant starts commercial operations")
The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) in Tamil Nadu today commenced commercial operations.
Unit-I, with a capacity of 1,000 Mw, started generating power and has been connected to the southern grid.
“Commercial operations of the first 1,000 Mw unit at KNPP started from 00:00 hours on Wednesday. The unit has been operating at 1000-Mw since December 10,” RS Sundar, site director of KNPP, told Business Standard.
India’s nuclear power plant operator, NPCIL, is setting up two 1,000 Mw Russian reactors at Kudankulam in Tirunelveli district, 650 km from here. The total outlay for the project is over Rs 17,000 crore. The first unit had attained criticality, which is the beginning of the fission process, in July 2013.
The project construction, which started in 2002, faced a considerable delay, on account of protests by neighbouring villages (mainly fishermen), who are worried about the loss of livelihood.
Recently, after years of deadlock on liability, India and Russia signed an agreement for building Units III and IV of KNPP.
The new units will have 1000 Mw each and the estimated cost is around Rs 39,000 crore, as against Rs 17,000 crore for Units I & II. It would take around 69 months for completion, starting from early 2016.
The agreement was signed under a general framework accord and involves contractual orders for long manufacturing cycle equipments worth Rs 10,000 crore, Sundar had earlier told.
It would take around 30 months to design, fabricate, test and deliver the reactors at the site. These function on nuclear steam supply system, weighing around 320 tonne.
Unit-I, with a capacity of 1,000 Mw, started generating power and has been connected to the southern grid.
“Commercial operations of the first 1,000 Mw unit at KNPP started from 00:00 hours on Wednesday. The unit has been operating at 1000-Mw since December 10,” RS Sundar, site director of KNPP, told Business Standard.
India’s nuclear power plant operator, NPCIL, is setting up two 1,000 Mw Russian reactors at Kudankulam in Tirunelveli district, 650 km from here. The total outlay for the project is over Rs 17,000 crore. The first unit had attained criticality, which is the beginning of the fission process, in July 2013.
The project construction, which started in 2002, faced a considerable delay, on account of protests by neighbouring villages (mainly fishermen), who are worried about the loss of livelihood.
Recently, after years of deadlock on liability, India and Russia signed an agreement for building Units III and IV of KNPP.
The new units will have 1000 Mw each and the estimated cost is around Rs 39,000 crore, as against Rs 17,000 crore for Units I & II. It would take around 69 months for completion, starting from early 2016.
The agreement was signed under a general framework accord and involves contractual orders for long manufacturing cycle equipments worth Rs 10,000 crore, Sundar had earlier told.
It would take around 30 months to design, fabricate, test and deliver the reactors at the site. These function on nuclear steam supply system, weighing around 320 tonne.