TIRUNELVELI: The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) set a new record of highest nuclear power generation in the country by a single station with both of the units operating in their maximum capacity and producing 1000 MWe each.
The press note released by KKNPP site director (additional charge) SV Jinna says, “The KKNPP at southern Tamil Nadu achieved 2,000 MWe-mark power generation at 3.30 am on December 5.”
The twin units at KKNPP are of VVER (water-cooled water-moderated reactor) that belong to the pressurised water reactor category and use enriched uranium oxide fuel to generate electricity and so far have generated 20,863 million units of electricity.
Of these, the first unit was responsible for producing 16,079 MUs and the second one 4,784 MUs so far.
It may be noted that unit-I was syncronised with the grid on October 2013 and unit-II attained the same on August 2016.
The construction works of KKNPP begun on 2002 amid severe opposition from the locals, fishermen and anti-nuclear activists. The units were built by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) with technical cooperation from Atomstroyexport, a Russian Federation’s Nuclear Power Equipment and Service Export Monopoly under India-Russian nuclear agreement 1988 signed between former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and erstwhile Soviet leader Mikahil Gorbachev.
The KKNPP is planned to house a total of six reactors and the foundation stone laying ceremony for construction of the third and the fourth units was held on February 2016. Similarly, India and Russia entered into an agreement on June 2017 at St Petersburg for the fifth and sixth reactors for KKNPP.