India started pumping electricity for the first time from its Kudankulam nuclear power plant in the southern state of Tamil Nadu on Tuesday, with an initial output of 160 MW. Power will be raised to roughly 1,000 megawatts in stages as it undergoes further testing and regulatory clearances. The reactor in Tamil Nadu brings the country’s total nuclear power generation to 5,780 megawatts.
The start of production at the plant comes in the same week as Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Russia. The Voda Voda Energo Reactor (VVER) is the first pressurized water reactor in the light water reactor category in the country. Russian authorities said such reactors are used in Ukraine and China. Ukraine has six units of 1,000MW capacity, similar to the Kudankulam unit, at Zaporizhzhia.
NPCIL, India nuclear utlility noted that output from the reactor would be raised in stages – to 500 MWe, then 750 MWe before reaching full capacity of 1000 MWe. NPCIL said that at each stage various tests would be conducted and technical parameters verified. Approval would be required from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board between each increase in output. The agreement between India and Russia was signed back in 1988 but construction began only in 2002 and the unit was completed in March 2011. Some performance issues were identified with a number of pumps in the passive core cooling system in April, but these have since been replaced. The unit achieved first criticality in July.
