Kudankulam Unit 2 to be connected to power grid by August-end

Days after the first Unit of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant was dedicated to the nation, officials of the Russian firm involved in the project told IANS that Unit 2 will be connected to the power grid by August-end.

Andrey Lebedev, Vice-President for Projects in South Asia of ASE -- the Engineering and Construction Division of Russian state atomic power corporation Rosatom, told IANS that Unit 2 is likely to be connected to the grid on August 27 or 28.

"The customer's (India) planned deadline for connection of Kudankulam NPP second unit to the national Grid is August 27-28, 2016," Lebedev said.

According to Lebedev, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Body (AERB) has recently given a permit for the power rise of the reactor plant.

"The supervisory body believes that the unit may be operated safely," he said.

The first Unit at Kudankulam, which went critical, or started generating power, on July 13, 2013, was connected to the southern power grid on October 22 the same year.

The unit was dedicated to the nation on August 10 this year, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying it marked the start of Indo-Russian collaboration in the nuclear energy field and that bigger atomic power units would be built.

Modi, along with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa dedicated the plant to people of India.

The Unit 2 of the plant went critical on July 10 this year.

With this, India now has 22 nuclear power reactors with a total capacity of 6,780 MW.

--IANS

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