India: Fuel loading completed at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, critiality processes commenced

Despite being dodged by safety concerns and continuing protests, atomic scientists have completed loading of enriched Uranium fuel in the first of the two 1000 MW Russian-made nuclear power reactors at Kudankulam and kickstarted the process towards attaining criticality.

This has brightened the prospect of early power generation from the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP), which is inching closer to getting commissioned.

While it was Buddha's smile for Pokhran II, here the day chosen was Gandhi Jayanthi. Though the green signal for fuel loading was accorded by the country's nuclear watchdog AERB on August 10, it took time to commence work due to court cases.

After the Madras High Court cleared the decks, the Supreme Court too refused to stay the loading of fuel assemblies.

According to sources in KKNPP, Uranium rods were inserted in all the 163 fuel assemblies and the procedure for criticality was launched on Tuesday.

However, this does not mean immediate power generation as the process involves five stages. This comprises safety and radioactivity tests. While confirming that loading of Uranium-235 was complete in Unit-I of the atomic power plant, sources were silent on whether it was recycled fuel that is being used.

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