In a note produced in the Madras High Court, when a batch of petitions relating to the KKNPP came up before a Division Bench comprising Justices P Jyothimani and M Doraisamy, NPCIL said spent fuel from the reactors would be stored in a spent fuel pool, which has been designed for its storage.
The pool capacity has been designed for storing spent fuel assemblies for eight years and unloading of the total reactor core at any moment during operation of the plant, it said.
As practised in other nuclear power plants, after eight years of storage, the spent fuel would be stored in an Away From Reactor (AFR) facility, the note said, adding, this may be constructed either at KKNPP or at some other site, which would be decided at the appropriate time.
The Bench then directed NPCIL's counsel to file the note in the form of an affidavit.
Meanwhile, as per an earlier direction, Tirunelveli District Collector R Selvaraj and PWD Chief Engineer Gopalakrishnan appeared before the court and filed affidavits.
In the additional common counter affidavit, Selvaraj detailed the off-site emergency exercise at Nakkaneri on June 9 and the welfare schemes to be implemented by the government.
Last month, the State Government had furnished the Centre with a three-year-wise break up of proposed expenditure to construct 10,000 houses under the KKNPP Neighbourhood Development Scheme, the counter said.
It said Primary Health Centres at Kudankulam and Chettikulam would be upgraded to government hospitals.
A new PHC would be opened as part of a Rs 500 crore package announced by the Chief Minister for development around KKNPP.