Kudankulam unit shut after snag

The turbine generator has been in operation for just over 190 days for 4,701 hours and generated 282.5 crore units of power.

Written by Arun Janardhanan | Chennai |
October 21, 2014 2:55:12 am

Following a technical snag in the turbine generator of the first unit of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project on Monday, authorities decided to shut down the unit for six to eight weeks.

The turbine generator has been in operation for just over 190 days for 4,701 hours and generated 282.5 crore units of power. An official statement from the project site director R S Sundar said the unit had been shut down to inspect the turbine and its associated components before resuming commercial operation. Without mentioning much about the snag in the turbine and the critical nature of some of its components, the statement said they had already replaced some components.

“It is likely to take more than eight weeks to resume operations as some of the critical components need replacement,” said a senior project official. Construction of two 1,000 MW units at the plant in collaboration with Russia at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruneveli district was initiated by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India. After attaining criticality on July 2013, operations of Unit-1 had undergone a series of troubles.

Meanwhile, a statement issued by People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy from Idinthakarai, Kudankulam, demanded the immediate resignation of project site director Sundar for covering up such incidents in the past.