Kundankulam Nuclear Plant Powers Up After Six-Year Delay

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--After six years of delays due to environmental protests and late equipment deliveries, India's 2,000-megawatt (MW) Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu has launched a test start on its first unit reactor. The unit operated for two hours at an output capacity of 175 MW.

The power station's operator, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), said that power generation was halted after two hours, in accordance with standard testing procedures. The Department of Atomic Energy said that the plant was shut down for planned checks and strainer clean-up.

The power generated was fed into India's southern grid. The unit will be synchronized to the grid with 400 MW of power beginning 30 to 45 days from critical launch. Power generation then will be increased in steps to 50%, 75%, 90% and 100%. Full power generation will commence after the plant passes all of the necessary regulatory clearances. Eventually, Unit 1 will reach 1,000 MW.

The addition of Unit 1 output to the grid will increase the country's total nuclear power generation from 4,780 MW to 5,780 MW. The second unit, now under construction, will take the project's output to 2,000 MW. Kundankulam will be the 20th NPCIL nuclear plant to be connected to the grid.

Plans involve setting up four new units at Kudankulam, which will take total generation from the site to 6,000 MW and the national nuclear power total to more than 10,000 MW.

The Kudankulam 1 and 2 reactors are under a bilateral agreement that was signed before the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act became law in 2010. The law makes atomic plant suppliers and builders liable in the event of nuclear accident. This stalled negotiations between Russia and India on the supply of more reactors.

For related information, see September 30, 2013, article - India Targets 63 Gigawatts of Nuclear Power by 2032 with Low-Cost Reactors.

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