 "Modi & Putin to dedicate Kudankulam Nuclear Plant Unit-I tomorrow")
India and Russia are cooperating in the nuclear energy sphere for many years. The first unit of the Indian nuclear power plant is already in service. It was connected to the southern grid and the operation of the first 1,000 Mw unit at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) has started from 00 00 hours on December 31, 2014 generating 1,000 Mw.
India's regulator is currently expected to authorise start of the second power unit at KNPP.
India's atomic power plant operator Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) is setting up two 1,000 Mw Russian reactors at Kudankulam village in Tirunelveli district, 650 km from here.
For Unit I and II, the initial cost was estimated to be around Rs 13,171 crore, but it has gone up to Rs 17,270 crore due to the delay, rupee depreciation and certain other factors.
The reactors at Kudankulam are being built by the NPCIL and Russia's Atomstroyexport company, a subsidiary of Rosatom (the regulatory body of the Russian nuclear complex).
The Indian government signed a contract with the Soviet Union to build the plant in 1988, but construction started only in 1997 due to the political and economic upheaval in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The construction of the first two units were later halted in September 2011 following protests by villagers around the plant. Work at the plant finally resumed in March 2012. And now, it's days away from generating energy. After court and governments, both state and centre, interventions the issue was addressed.
On July 13, 2013, power generation started initially it was 300 Mw and it was increased to 500 Mw step by step.
In December 2014, KNPP Unit I was declared commercial operation from midnight of December 31, 2014.
The second unit of KKNPP-II attained first criticality (start of controlled self-sustaining nuclear fission chain reaction in the Reactor for the first time) at 20:56 hours on July 10, 2016 after accord of regulatory and statutory clearances.This will be followed by various tests, connection to the grid and raising of power in steps to full power in line with the stage-wise clearances of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB).
The compliance certificates from Ministry of Environment and Forest and Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board are issued for the plant.
The capacity of KKNPP Unit-II on full power operation would be 1,000 Mw. Electricity generated by central sector generating stations is allocated to the beneficiary states and union territories in the electricity region by the Ministry of Power.
The allocation from KKNPP-1&2 (2,000 Mw) include Tamil Nadu (925 Mw), Karnataka (442 Mw), Kerala (266 Mw), Puducherry (67 Mw) and 300 Mw remains unallocated. At present out of unallocated quota of 150 Mw of KKNPP-I, 100 Mw is allocated to Tamil Nadu and 50 Mw to Andhra Pradesh.
