The Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) is all set to announce the setting-up of two more nuclear power units at the Kaiga Atomic Power Station (KAPS) in Uttara Kannada district.
Located about 58 km from the district headquarters Karwar, the Kaiga plant currently provides 28 per cent of the power it produce to Karnataka as per the MoU with the state government. Once the two new units are operational, the state will get 50 per cent of the total power generated at the new towers.
H N Bhat, Director of Kaiga Atomic Power Station (KAPS), told ‘Express’ that they were awaiting sanction for the two new units in the next six months. The new units will have 700 MW capacity each. The Kaiga plant already has the required infrastructure for the new units,” he said.
KAPS currently generates about 880 MW and has been awarded as one of the safest and profiting-making nuclear power plants in the country.
“Worldwide, a section of environmentalists are now supporting nuclear power after recent studies of radiations have cleared many myths. Also, it is now an established fact that nuclear energy is clean energy and contributes less greenhouse gases compared to thermal power units. For India, nuclear power and renewable energy sectors are the future. Most of our thermal units do not operate to their full capacity. But at Kaiga, we have ensured a tower running more than 529 days without having stopped for a minute. Nearly 1,654 finest engineers, graduates and over 2,000 contract staff works in our plant and the success belongs to them,” Bhat said.
V N Nayak, a senior environmentalist from Karwar, said that for the last few years, the forests around the Kaiga plant have remained pristine. The new units must be planed in the same plant premises to prevent any ecological damage, he felt.
“There is no need to disturb some other location in Western Ghats to set up the new units. They must be developed in the same premises. The township of Mallapur, which was created for the employees of Kaiga power station, has poor waste disposal units leading to pollution in river Kali. Such acts must be regularised and treatment plants must be set up at the earliest,” Nayak said.
“We have also been monitoring the radiation activity in and around the KAPS, and so far the results are satisfactory and there is no cause for any alarm,” he added.
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