KARWAR: Officials of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) on Thursday officially announced that Kaiga Atomic Power Station’s unit-1 stands first among Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) and second among nuclear power reactors (of all technologies) in the world in terms of continuous operation.
NPCIL in a release stated on Thursday that unit-1 of KAPS has completed 895 days’ continuous operation on Thursday and set the world record in continuous operation among PHWRs. The unit has been operating from May 13, 2016. The unit-1 is an indigenous PHWR fuelled by domestic fuel, which started commercial operation on November 16, 2000.
The previous record for continuous operation was held by a unit of Pickering Nuclear Generating Station (PNGS) of Canada, which operated continuously for 894 days and a few hours. On Thursday morning, KAPS unit-1 broke previous records of other PHWR reactors and stood first in the world.
Located 56 km from Karwar, the Kaiga plant has four units and each unit generates 220 MW power. The power generated here is supplied to Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Karnataka’s share is 33 per cent.
Claiming continuous operation of nuclear power generating units, NPCIL said three reactors -- KAPS-1 (895 days), Rajasthan Atomic Power Station’s unit-3 (777 days) and RAPS-5 (765 days) are operating continuously for more than two years.
There are 22 reactors operating currently in the country with a capacity of 6780 MW. Eight reactors with a capacity of 6,200 MW are under construction.Apart from these reactors, 12 more reactors of 9,000 MW have got administrative approval and financial sanctions from the Union Government, and construction of the same will soon start.