RAPS-5's 765-day safe performance makes it No.2 globally: NPCIL

With continuous 765 days safe reactor operations, the Rawatbhata Rajasthan Atomic Power Station's RAPS-5 unit has been catapulted to the second best position globally, an official of India's nuclear power operator said Saturday.

Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL)'s site director S.K. Sharma said that the trailblazing performance of RAPS-5 started Aug 2, 2012 and it operated at full power during its continuous run since.

With the 765 days of continuous safe reactor operations, it has surpassed the second best continuous operation record of 739 days.

"In all, on 14 occasions so far, Indian nuclear power reactors have recorded more than a year of continuous operations," Sharma said.

An indigenously designed Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor, the 220-MW RAPS-5 is fuelled by natural uranium and moderated and cooled by heavy water.

First synchronized to the power grid on Dec 22, 2009, RAPS-5 started commercial operations Feb 4, 2010.

Till date, it has generated 8,663 million units of electricity for the Northern Grid, benefitting Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan.

Of the total 1,080 MW capacity currently in operation, around 50 percent of the power generated here is supplied to Rajasthan.

The harbinger of PHWRs in India, the Rajasthan site hosts a total of eight PHWRs, of which two 700MW reactors are under-construction, making it India's first and largest nuclear park in terms of the number of reactors at a site.