Kudankulam Unit II by September

The second 1,000-MW unit at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) in Tamil Nadu may start producing commercial electricity by September 2014 while the first unit will generate 1,000 MW of electricity by February 2014.

“Ninety per cent of the work on the Unit-II has been completed and it could go into production by September,” V Narayansamy, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office said here on Friday.

The first unit of the KNPP is likely to begin generating to its full capacity of 1,000 MW by February end, he said.

The capacity of Unit I will be raised gradually from the current 440 MW to, first, 750 MW and then to the maximum 1,000 MW. “The authorities have already sought the permission of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board to raise it to 750 MW. The Board’s approval should come any time now’,” the minister said. Atomic Energy Commission chairman R K Sinha earlier stated that the department of atomic energy was taking extra care with the Kudankulam plant as it was based on a technology introduced in India for the first time.