<p>In a major setback to commencing its commercial operations, power production was stopped at the first atomic power unit at Kudankulam due to a technical snag in the turbine process.</p>.<p><br />The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) had planned to start commercial operations of the first 1,000 MW unit at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) by the end of this October.<br /><br />“The unit has been shut down to inspect turbine and its associated components before putting it for commercial operation. Maintenance activities are in progress before the unit is expected to be back in service. Some components of the turbine need to be replaced for which action has been initiated,” R S Sundar, site director, KNPP said.<br /><br />He said the first unit is expected to be back in service in six to eight weeks. However, NPCIL sources said that during the power generation process, the turbine blades were damaged due to a technical problem inside the turbine.<br /><br />KNPP Unit 1 turbine has been operated for 4,701 hours so far and generated 282.5 crore units of electricity which was supplied to the southern grid since October 2013.<br />The first unit was shut down for annual maintenance on September 26 and it was restarted after one week to reach its full power levels. In July 2013, it attained criticality, which is the beginning of the fission process. The unit has started power generation and has been connected to the southern grid.<br /><br />Sources said that about 90 per cent of the works was completed in the second unit for starting the power production.<br /><br />The construction work for the third and fourth units, for which India has signed an agreement with Russia recently, has commenced.<br /><br />Russia and India signed an agreement for building the third and fourth units of the KNPP at a cost of Rs 33,000 crores. A general framework agreement was signed between the NPCIL with representatives of Russian-based Rosatom.<br /></p>
<p>In a major setback to commencing its commercial operations, power production was stopped at the first atomic power unit at Kudankulam due to a technical snag in the turbine process.</p>.<p><br />The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) had planned to start commercial operations of the first 1,000 MW unit at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) by the end of this October.<br /><br />“The unit has been shut down to inspect turbine and its associated components before putting it for commercial operation. Maintenance activities are in progress before the unit is expected to be back in service. Some components of the turbine need to be replaced for which action has been initiated,” R S Sundar, site director, KNPP said.<br /><br />He said the first unit is expected to be back in service in six to eight weeks. However, NPCIL sources said that during the power generation process, the turbine blades were damaged due to a technical problem inside the turbine.<br /><br />KNPP Unit 1 turbine has been operated for 4,701 hours so far and generated 282.5 crore units of electricity which was supplied to the southern grid since October 2013.<br />The first unit was shut down for annual maintenance on September 26 and it was restarted after one week to reach its full power levels. In July 2013, it attained criticality, which is the beginning of the fission process. The unit has started power generation and has been connected to the southern grid.<br /><br />Sources said that about 90 per cent of the works was completed in the second unit for starting the power production.<br /><br />The construction work for the third and fourth units, for which India has signed an agreement with Russia recently, has commenced.<br /><br />Russia and India signed an agreement for building the third and fourth units of the KNPP at a cost of Rs 33,000 crores. A general framework agreement was signed between the NPCIL with representatives of Russian-based Rosatom.<br /></p>
