Power generation begins at Kudankulam

In a significant development, power generation began on Monday at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) unit-1, which was shutdown due to turbine problem in September.

“Power generation in the first unit has reached 319 MW on Monday against its total capacity of 1,000 MW,” a senior KNPP official said.

Earlier, when commercial operations at KNPP was about to be announced, power production came to an halt at the first atomic power unit due to a technical snag.
According to the official, the unit has been shut down to inspect turbine and its associated components before putting it for commercial operation.

“It (turbine system) was in the observation for few weeks after the components were replaced. We started the machine and its health is normal,” he said.

The power production is expected to reach 800 MW in few days, the official said.
KNPP officials also informed that measures are being taken to avoid recurrence of such an event in unit-2, which is presently under commissioning and is also being prepared for the hot run.

Sources said about 90 per cent of the works were completed in unit-2 for starting power production.

Construction of the third and fourth unit at a cost of Rs 33,000 crore, for which India signed an agreement with Russia recently, has commenced.

A general framework agreement was signed between NPCIL and Russia-based Rosatom. KNPP is India's first pressurised water reactor belonging to the light water reactor category.