KAIGA (Karntka): With the fourth unit of Kaiga Generating Station (KGS-4) goes critical on Saturday, India has become the sixth country in the world to have 20 or more nuclear power reactors in operation.
KGS-4 will start its commercial production in December this year, raising Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) installed capacity of Kaiga site from four 220 MW units to 880 MW. The total installed capacity of NPCIL, which has 20 reactors at seven plants across the country, with KGS-4 is 4780 MW. It has taken more than nine years for this plant to be operational, since ground breaking on March 2001.
Criticality, in nuclear terms, signifies the start of self-sustaining nuclear fission chain reaction in the reactor core, which leads to the production of power. Nuclear Power Corporation in a release said the unit will be synchronised to the southern grid after carrying out certain mandatory tests early December’10.
With Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited’s Kaiga-4 unit becoming operational, India is now elevated to the sixth rank in an elite club of nations, after the US, France, Japan, Russian Federation and Republic of Korea, to have 20 or more nuclear power reactors currently in operation.
India capable of offering nuclear power expertise to other countries
Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Chairman Srikumar Banerjee has said the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has emerged as a globally competent agency to build nuclear reactors and was ready to offer its expertise to other countries.
Dr Banerjee said this after witnessing the fourth 220 MW unit of the Kaiga Atomic Power Plant attaining criticality here this morning. The power generation from the plant was exepected to be syncronised with the southern grid next month
The indigenously-developed 220 MW capacity Unit 4 of the Kaiga Atomic Power Station attained criticality at 8.07.22 am making India the sixth country in the world to have 20 or more nuclear power plants in operation.
Speaking about Nuclear Liability Bill, Banerjee disclosed that under the provisions of the Bill the liabilities were to be fixed on raw material suppliers, the operators and the transmitters. Hence the rules and definitions of each of these three parties are being framed. He further said that medical isotopes were much in demand worldwide. To fulfill the growing demand, the two reactors in Mumbai namely Dhruv and Apsara are developed to enhance the production of medical isotopes.
Similarly, it is proposed to build a dedicated reactor in Vizag to produce medical isotopes. Reacting on a proposal pending with the Central Government to begin two 700 Mega watt units in Kaiga,
Banerjee said that the site for the same was available in the same premises in Kaiga and once the proposal was cleared by the Government, it can be built at a lesser cost without any damage to the environment.
The Kaiga-4 was built a few years ago but was unable to start power production for want of fuel. AMN/ AIR