JOIN USN-plant may not go critical during Putin's visit
The first 1,000 mw unit of the Russian-assisted Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district is inching closer, albeit cautiously, towards going ‘critical’- which marks the start-up of the chain reaction in the reactor-, as the testing of all the reactor systems is in full swing.
The process called ‘heating up’ of the reactor systems to test their integrity at very high temperature and pressure, has been going on even as the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), Dr R K Sinha suddenly visited Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project on Saturday. But the first unit going critical may not coincide with the visit of Russian president Vladimir Putin due to arrive in New Delhi on Monday. A senior official of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) told Deccan Herald on Sunday that while the regulatory body had given the go-ahead for the heating up of the systems, it was yet to give the final clearance for the Unit-I’s “first approach to criticality (FAC)”, the ultimate stepping stone to generating electricity from the nuclear power plant.
An AERB team of experts was now in Kudankulam and “we have to review” all the results of this second hot-run phase, before giving the go-ahead for the next phase of activity, namely ‘FAC’, the official said.
“If everything goes well, then we may give the clearance for FAC,” he said without committing to any date, when asked if the KNPP first unit could go critical by December-end.
The enriched uranium fuel rods had been loaded into the first unit in September third week. The reactor built with Russian design and equipment uses light water as both coolant and moderator and Russia will supply the fuel for its entire life-span.
AEC board reconstituted
Interestingly, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Board, headed by Dr Sinha, has been reconstituted a few days ago for the ensuing year 2013.
The AEC now includes V Narayanasamy, minister of state in the PMO, as member. Narayanasamy has been doing much of the talking on the Central government’s behalf since the anti-Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project agitation had intensified since September 2011.
The reconstituted 15-Member AEC, apart from its traditional members including National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, Pulok Chatterji, principal secretary to the prime minister, Ajit Kumar Seth, cabinet secretary, Ranjan Mathai, foreign secretary, Raminder Singh Gujral, finance secretary, Dr Anil Kakodkar and Dr M R Srinivasan (both AEC’s former chiefs) among others, has also a few new members like Prof C N R Rao, honorary president, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore.
Meanwhile, the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), spearheading the anti-Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project protests, in a statement from Kudankulam on Sunday, demanded that the visiting Russian president “should go back,” accusing Russia for causing “huge economic loss” to India from thenuclear power project due to “inefficient management and delayed delivery of equipment”. The PMANE also demanded that Russia take back the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project plant back to their country.