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Journalism of Courage
State-owned Nuclear Power Corporation NPCIL expects the much-delayed Koodankulam nuclear projects first unit to commence commercial operations by August 2012,and the second of the two 1,000 MWe mega watt electrical units by March 2013.
This is as per the new official commissioning schedules announced for the project,which has suffered an over five-month delay due to protests.
The final inspection of the equipment at the first unit is nearly through and the process of obtaining clearances from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board of India AERB for fuel loading is underway. The AERB is currently reviewing all the relevant reports,including the reports of the hot run test of unit 1 that were conducted in July 2011. Once the AERB nod is obtained,fine-tuning of the equipment would be carried out. If all goes well,the first unit should attain criticality and commence generation in two months, an NPCIL official said.
Commercial operations imply injecting generated electricity into the grid.
The first of the Russian VVER reactor-based units was to start operations in December 2011 before protests derailed operations. About 2,000 Indian and Russian engineers are currently working round-the-clock to make up for lost time. Work has resumed at the site since March 20,2012.
Because of the hold-up and non-generation of electricity,the estimated revenue loss was estimated at about Rs 116.27 crore per month,excluding the additional financing cost of around Rs 30 crore per month and establishment charges of around Rs 8 crore per month.
According to the NPCIL website,by April 2012,the first Koodankulam unit was 99.3 per cent complete,while the second unit was 94.7 per cent complete. The bulk of the power generated from the two units will go to Tamil Nadu 925 MW and Kerala 266 MW.
