Kudankulam update

After nearly a year’s delay due to anti-nuclear protests, the first unit of the Rs 15,000 crore Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu will begin commercial production in 40 days, minister of state in prime minister’s office V Narayanaswamy said. The atomic energy regulatory board (AERB) official were at the project site and will complete the safety inspections within a week.

Thereafter uranium fuel for starting power generation will be loaded. After trial run for 20 days, the plant would be begin commercial power generation, he added. The second 1000 mw unit, which is also almost ready, will begin commercial power generation two months thereafter.

The work on the plant was suspended in October last year soon after the hotrun, which is a process to test the reactor systems and pipelines using dummy fuel following the agitation and hunger strike by the anti-nuclear protestors.

Kudankulam nuclear power project is first of the civil nuclear plants to be built in the country after the signing of the Indo-US nuclear agreement. The project being build with Russian assistance will have six 1000 mw nuclear units. The negotiations for the second phase of the project is almost complete. Under second phase, two more 1000 mw nuclear units are to be built.Third phase will add two more.

The government has selected five more sites for such mega nuclear power plants with 6000-10,000 mw capacity in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha and Karnataka.

The next site where work is expected to begin is Jaitapur in Maharashtra where six 1650 mw nuclear units are to set up with French collaboration. The project too has been delayed due to anti nuclear protests there.

The Jaitapur plant is to be built by French company Areva. That apart Indian government has planned to set by several indigenously built nuclear plants with 700 mw generation capacity.
Several sites have been identified for these plants in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.