Kudankulam nuclear plant a step away from criticality

Chennai:

The Unit 1 of Kudankulam nuclear power project is now step away from criticality following Atomic Energy Regulatory Board granting clearance for First Approach to Criticality of Unit 1 of Kudankulam nuclear power project.

First Approach to Criticality is the commencement of controlled nuclear fission process for the first time and is a step towards beginning of power production in a nuclear reactor. Following the clearance several number of low power tests will be carried out in order to verify the conformance of reactor characteristics to the design objectives before granting clearance, says AERB.

Dr M R Srinivasan, former chairman Atomic energy commission told Express that the clearance is an important step towards the subsequent beginning of power production in nuclear reactor.

“The clearance is a step away from the reactor attaining criticality. After this instrumentation checks will be conducted before the final clearance will be given,” he said. The next commissioning stage includes the phase-wise increase in reactor power level.

Interestingly, this comes in the wake of the Supreme Court giving its nod for establishment of Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu after noting that all safety standards had been put in place. “While granting the clearance, it has been ensured that the directives of supreme Court are fully complied with,” said AERB.

AERB had earlier granted the final permission for initial fuel loading in Unit –1 of Kudankulam nuclear plant in September last year. Subsequent to this, review was carried out by specialist groups and the advisory committee for project safety review of AERB.

Unit –I is the first of two units of VVER Russian reactors located at Kudankulam with installed electric generating capacity of 1,000 MW each. It is the first pressurized water reactor based nuclear power plant in the country.