October 30, 2012

The much-delayed Kudankulam nuclear power project is expected to become operational shortly, said Ratan Kumar Sinha, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission. “The work on the construction of the first of the two 1000 MW Light Water Reactors (LWRs) at Kudankulam is complete,” said Sinha. “The operation of unit-1 is expected to commence shortly and the commissioning of the second unit is expected to follow early next year,” he said. As per officials, the first unit on the Kudankulam nuclear power project may go critical as early as next week.

Loading of 163 bundles of enriched uranium fuel into the reactor began on September 19 and was completed on October 2. Engineers of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited and experts from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and the International Atomic Energy Agency carried out in depth review of the reactor. A series of pressure tests would be carried out on the reactors in the presence of the AERB and IAEA experts.

Commissioning of the first unit of the Indo-Russian project was originally scheduled for December last year, but has been delayed due to protests.