KNPP's new unit likely to commence operation soon

As the Ministry of Environment officials and Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board have given a nod to the Unit-2 of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project, the commercial operation is likely to resume in few months.

A senior official involved with the project said on Sunday that as per the Supreme Court order, four agencies such as Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd (NPCIL), TNPCB and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change will be filing its inspection report with the Supreme Court certifying the plant is safe to operate.

“Soon after filing the clearance report, it will just take few days for criticality process otherwise called fission process,” he told DH.

As the fuel loading operations in the second unit was done in May 2016 itself, a KNPP official said that after criticality test, technical authorities will do the power startup before conducting a comprehensive test.

“This will take minimum two to three months,” the official said.
According to him, the commercial operations of Unit-2 is expected to begin in November or December this year.

The Unit-1 of KNPP commenced its commercial operation in December 2014 after attaining criticality in July 2013 post which it was connected to the southern grid.

In its full capacity of 1,000 MW power production, the KNPP Unit-1 supplies electricity to Tamil Nadu (562.5 MW), Karnataka (221 MW), Kerala (133 MW), Andhra Pradesh (50 MW)  and Puducherry (33.5 MW).