KARNATAKA: State-run nuclear power utility, Nuclear Power
Corporation of India, plans to add two more units of 700 megawatts (mw)
each at the Kaiga Atomic Power Station in Karnataka, company officials
said on Saturday after the commissioning of the fourth unit at the
plant.
With the commissioning of
the indigenously-developed 220 MW Unit-4, India’s nuclear power capacity
has risen to 4,780 mw. The fourth unit achieved criticality, or ability
to sustain stable reactions and steady power supply, at 8.07.22 am on
Saturday and would start commercial generation in two months.
The Unit – 4 at Kaiga was constructed a few years back but
could not be commissioned due to lack of supply of Uranium fuel. The
unit tied up Uranium supply from domestic sources earlier this year.
Currently, the first three units at the Kaiga plant are running at 70%
capacity due to shortage of fuel.
“We would like to raise the capacity of the first three units to 100%
and add two more units at Kaiga,” Jain said. The fifth and the sixth
pressurized heavy water reactors at the plant may be of 700 mw each.
“Our site selection committee has evaluated the option of setting up two
more reactors at Kaiga and has concluded it’s suitable. We await
government approval,” said Chairman and Managing Director Shreyans Kumar
Jain.
Nuclear Power Corp is
currently setting up four pressurized heavy water reactors of 700 mw
each. Two of these are at Kakrapar in Gujarat, while the other two are
at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan. “We are currently working on four units, by
March we hope to start work on four more,” Jain said.
(The correspondent was in Karnataka recently at the invitaton of NPCIL)
src: ET