TIRUNELVELI : Dedicating the Unit-2 of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) in operation to the Indo-Russian Friendship and Co-operation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin laid the foundation of units 3 and 4 through video-conferencing from the BRICS summit in Goa on Saturday.
Situated in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, the KKNPP’s first and second nuclear power reactors with 1000 MWe capacity each became operationalised this year. KKNPP reached another milestone on Saturday with the laying of foundation for two more 1000 MWe reactors.
While the heads of both the nations formally inaugurated the base concreting work from Goa, S K Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and Valery Limarenko, President of Atomstroyexport, jointly laid the foundation concrete for Units 3 and 4 at the Koondankulam plant site here.
NPCIL Project Director R Banerjee, HR Director N Nagaich, KKNPP Site Director R S Sundar, Project Director for 3 and 4 P A Pillai and senior officials of the Atomstoryexport participated.
Later, addressing a media gathering at the site, Sharma said the reactors 3 and 4 are Pressurised Water Reactors to be installed with the technical cooperation of Russia. The Russian company Atomstroyexport would provide technical support and supply equipment. “With these reactors, the KKNPP is tipped to be the largest nuclear plant in the county,” he prided.
He said the first pour of concrete of Unit 3 would be held in April next, 69 months after which it would be commissioned, while the commissioning of unit 4 will follow suit in the next six months after that. The total cost of the third and fourth reactors is estimated to be Rs 39,849 crore.
On Unit 2, the NPCIL chairman said it would attain its full power generation capacity of 1000 MWe by the end of this financial year.The Unit 1 has been functioning continuously for 236 days since February 22, 2016, and has been generating 1000 MWe electricity.
Since its first synchronisation with the grid on October 22, 2013, the first reactor has so far generated 12, 313 Million Units of nuclear power. The Unit 2 attained criticality on July 10, 2016 and was first synchronised on August 29, 2016.
After the test synchronisation, all the mandatory tests were carried out and the unit was brought back online at 6.14 pm on Friday.