Power generation from KNPP 2nd unit suspended for maintenance

Power generation from the 1,000 MW second unit of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant was suspended today for maintenance work on the turbine, KNPP officials said.
They said that the unit, which was generating 240 MW and had so far supplied 5.3 crore units of power to the Southern grid, would be taken up for maintenance by Indian and Russian specialists.
The maintenance would enable the unit generate power on a regular basis, they said.
On August 29, the second unit was test synchronised with the southern power grid, marking generation of electricity from the unit and its supply to the grid.

KNPP Site Director R S Sundar had then said that the unit would be shut down for mandatory inspection of turbine-generator after a few days of operation.
"The power level will be increased in phases to 50, then 75 and 90 per cent and later to 100 per cent full power after obtaining necessary regulatory clearances," he had said in a statement.

KNPP-2 attained first criticality on July 10 this year and subsequently various reactor physics experiments were carried out at low power.
It was done under supervision of experts from Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, NPCIL and Russian specialists.
KNPP has been set up using Russian VVER type reactors based on enriched uranium.

Completion of Unit 1 was delayed in view of strident protests by local people, who raised safety concerns, before it became operational.
Pressurised Water Reactor VVER-1000 had gone critical in July 2014 and the commercial operations started from December 31 the same year, with the unit coming to the aid of the then power starved Tamil Nadu.