Chennai: The first nuclear reactor of the Rs 17,000 crore country’s 21st nuclear power plant in Kudankulam, which attained criticality on Saturday night, is functioning smoothly on Sunday and all the parametres are normal, a top official said. “At 2305 hrs (last night), the first nuclear reactor attained criticality(also known as atomic chain reaction) and all the parametres are normal. Sustained nuclear chain reaction has been achieved. Everything is normal,” R S Sundar, site director of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) told PTI. Overcoming a series of protests and legal hurdles that delayed the commissioning of the plant, the 1000 mw pressurised water Reactor (PWE) finally attained criticality, prompting the nuclear establishment to rejoice the “red letter day.” The Boron Dilution process, witnessed by the top guns of Indian and Russian nuclear establishments, signalled the end of an agonising wait for scientists who could finally heave a sigh of relief as much as the people of the state affected by a near 4000 mw demand-supply gap.
“Great achievement… it is a historic moment every Indian (has) to be proud of… a red-letter day indeed,” said J Daniel Chellappa, Senior Scientist at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), and Technical Coordinator, Central Expert Group on KKNPP.
The criticality milestone was achieved at 11.05 PM after the “Boron dilution process” allowed neutron concentration to go up and start nuclear fission, generating heat.
Experts from Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, Russian Kursatov Institute of Atomic energy, and Atomic Energy Regulatory Board observers monitored the process. The reactor will start its initial production of 400 MW electricity within 20 days, Union Minister V Narayanasamy said. “Yesterday, they started the criticality. Now the reaction of nuclear in the plant has started for the purpose of development of electricity. The production of electricity will be started in next 20 days,” Narayanasamy told PTI over phone from his constituency Puducherry.
M Kashinath Balaji, top official of NPCIL, said, “We are very joyous when the reactor became critical at 2305 hrs yesterday night. He said it was almost a “copybook” type of criticality and the reactor “behaved perfectly well”.
“Its absolutely safe. Its like a baby born. The bay is going to grow into a big child and as an adult,” he told NDTV.
NPCIL said that the next step following the crticiality will be to increase the reactor power in stages to generate 1000 mw electricity as per the laid down procedures and regulatory clearances.
Initially, the plant will be synchronised to the southern grid with about 400 mw power within the expected period of criticality. Subsequently, power will be increased in a step-wise manner to 50 percent, 75 percent, 90 percent and full power after obtaining necessary regulatory clearances.
Reiterating that it was a safe structure, NPCIL said that a combination of safety features provides enhanced safety, making it “one of the safest in the world.”
It said KKNPP-1 is the first PWR belogning to Light Water Reactor category and ‘harbinger’ of the large-size LWR technology in India, and at 1000 mw it was the ‘largest single power generation’ unit in the country.
“KKNPP-1 is the twenty-first nuclear power reactor in the country. India stands sixth in the world based on the number Atomic Energy Commission Chairman S K Sinha stated that the process of criticality was started at 11:45 PM on Thursday, when the control rods were removed to allow boron dilution. The first unit will add 1000 MW to the southern grid and increase the contribution from nuclear power to 5,780 MW. (PTI)