Power generation from Kudankulam N-power plant delayed further
12 Jan 2013
The controversial Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) in Tamil Nadu is likely to begin commercial operation in February, a month after it was to start generating power.
This is because the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCL), the regulator and the operator, respectively, of the plant, have prescribed further tests, even as the first 1000 MW unit of the KNPP reached the last phase towards criticality.
The plant, being built with Russian reactors, was originally scheduled to start generating power in December 2011, and was widely expected to go critical at the time of Russian President Putin's visit to this country last month.
In fact, the first unit has achieved 99.7 per cent physical progress as on December 2012.
NPCIL, which maintains that the delay in operationalising the plant was due mainly to anti-nuclear protests, said commercial operation of the 1000 MW unit would now begin in February.
Commercial production at the second 1000 MW unit has now been pushed to September 2013.
