DiaNuke.org

The first reactor at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP-1), built jointly by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) and Russia’s Atomstroyexport (ASE) is the only operating Generation-III pressurized water reactor (VVER-1000) in the world. During the 840 days of its grid connection since 22 October 2013, the reactor worked for 372 days, tripped (forced outage) for 20 times and was off-grid for 468 days and its capacity factor has been less than 25%.

The first unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP-1) attained criticality on 15 Jul 2013 and was grid connected on 22 Oct 2013. During the 365 days since grid connection, the reactor was under outage for 106 days and on maintenance shut-down for 64 days. It generated 2825 million units (MU) of electricity and consumed 538 MU for house-load (own consumption). The original plan to start commercial generation on 22nd April 2014, six months after its grid connection was postponed twice to 22nd Jul 14 and 22nd Oct 14. Now that the reactor has been shudt down on 25 Sep 14 for repair/replacement of turbo-generator, there is no burden of any deadline.

It is simply a violation of a trade treaty and collusion by NPCIL and AERB. In this case, if the reactor is started, it will be next to impossible to inspect it. The citizen and democratic institutions of India must intervene urgently.

In what may be a breach of the Indo-Russian agreement on the Koodankulam plant, NPCIL and AERB have accepted a lower-quality Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) with significant implications on radiation safety, according to two documents unearthed recently by PMANE’s Expert Committee.