Kudankulam nuclear plant crosses installed capacity

Unit one of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu crossed its installed capacity and generated 1,006 MW of power on Monday, the Russian partners in the project said here.

Director for projects in India for Russian atomic power corporation Rosatom, Vladimir A Angelov said that the Russian side hopes that India will decide on increasing the power generation of the Kudankulam plant beyond its installed capacity in the near future.

Angelov said that the next six nuclear power units that Russia is set to build in India will be of an installed capacity of 1,200 MW each.

Kudankulam's Unit one, which started commercial power generation on 31 December 2014, has an installed capacity of 995 MW, said Angelov, adding that on Monday it produced 11 Megawatts more power than its capacity.

"Yesterday the power plant generated 1,006 MW. The designed capacity is 995 MW. Actually it generated more than its installed capacity with all the same safety parameters," Angelov said told IANS in Chennai on the sidelines of Atomexpo 2016.

The unit can go up to generating 1,020 MW of power, he added.

"The existing parameters of the reactor plant make it possible to generate 1,020 MW. The director of the NPP (nuclear power plant) and the management of NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited) know that and we hope in near future they will take decision to increase power of the NPP unit," he said.

"It is very important that we can generate 25 MW more for the Indian people."

Talking about the agreement between Russia and India for building 12 more nuclear reactors, Angelov said the next six will have installed capacity of 1,200 MW each.

"The next six power units are going to be with 1,200 MW capacity each. We are waiting for India to identify the location for construction of the next six units," he added.

As per the bilateral Strategic Vision for Strengthening Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, India and Russia have plans to build and commission 12 nuclear power units in the next two decades.