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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India: Enriched uranium fuel loading begins at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project

NEW DELHI: India's nuclear operator has started loading enriched uranium fuel in the first reactor of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project after getting the final clearance from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) on Tuesday.

"The fuel loading has started on Wednesday," a senior official in the nuclear estalishment said.

The Kudankulam nuclear plant had run into a rash of protests following concern in the local communities on safety issues in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan in March last year.

The official said the AERB had granted its final clearance to start loading of 163 fuel bundles late evening on Tuesday after the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) fulfilled the conditions set by the regulator.

The loading of fuel is expected to take about 10 days, officials said.

The NPCIL is setting up two 1,000 MW nuclear power reactors at Kudankulam with Russian collaboration.

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India: Kudankulam nuclear reactor to be fuelled soon

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd is hopeful of soon getting clearance from the sectoral regulator to fuel the first reactor at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP), a senior official said Sunday.

"We had two detailed meetings with Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) Friday and Saturday. We hope to get a positive response from AERB in a week's time-by coming Saturday or Sunday," S.A. Bhardwaj, director (Technical) said over the phone.

According to him, NPCIL is not working towards any specific date like Aug 15 (Independence Day) to load the 163 fuel assemblies into the 1,000 MW light water reactor (LWR) supplied by Russia.

"Prior to the loading of the fuel we have to put in some components into the reactor. We will do that after getting AERB's nod to load the fuel. The process may take couple of days. We do not want to fix the components without the regulator's nod. We hope AERB would not ask to do us some more tests," Bhardwaj added.

"After getting the AERB nod we have to inform the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about moving the fuel from the stores to the reactor. It is up to IAEA to send a person or not to oversee the process," Bharadwaj said.

As KNPP falls under the safeguard agreement signed by India with IAEA, the latter have to be informed about fuel loading.

According to officials, NPCIL has communicated to the Tamil Nadu government that the fuel loading would happen around Aug 15.

"The loading may happen around Aug 15. It could be Aug 16th or 17th," Bhardwaj remarked.

Interestingly the fuel loading is expected to happen nearly one year after the protest against the KNPP erupted at Kudankulam and nearby Idinthakarai in August last year.

NPCIL is building two 1,000 MW reactors - supplied by Russia - in Kudankulam in Tirunelveli, around 650 km from here.

Work at the project came to a standstill last year after villagers in the area, fearing for their lives in case of a nuclear accident, mounted an intensive protest under People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) banner.


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Kudankulam nuclear power project cleared, govt steps on throttle

CHENNAI: A day after the state cabinet cleared the controversial Kudankulam nuclear power project in Tirunelveli, the government began moving ahead at full throttle to have the plant up and running by August.
　
As part of its strategy to hasten work while avoiding a confrontation with activists protesting against the project - which the government now sees as vital to dealing with its energy crisis - police contingents have been deployed on all approaches to the site. Section 144 of the CrPC has been clamped to prohibit protesters from rallying, and checkposts have been set up in surrounding villages. Police teams have been stationed at Thomas Mandapam, from where the Kudankulam main road branches off to Idinthakkarai, 2km from the plant and the focal point of the protests, to cut off the village. At Idinthakkarai, 15 protesters, including People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy coordinator S P Udayakumar and convener M Pushparayan, have started a hunger strike since noon on Monday. The protesters, who have gathered in the village, are aware that the police are waiting for them to make a mistake. "Please do not stray out of the village as the police are waiting for us to venture out," an activist announced as villagers queued up for a frugal meal of dal and rice. The police are playing a waiting game, cordoning off the plant and counting on the summer heat to drain the resolve of the protestors. Senior police officers said the protest fast would not pose a threat to activity at the plant. "As long as the hunger fasts remain peaceful, we will have no problem," said additional director-general of police (law and order) S George, who visited Kudankulam on Tuesday. Sources said the authorities are carrying out a propaganda campaign to create a rift between the local people and frontline protesters. South zone IG Rajesh Das told mediapersons that he had information that villagers were getting restive and were likely to ask outsiders to leave their villages. The police have so far arrested only protesters who tried to obstruct workers from entering the plant. The government is obviously keen to avoid a showdown with the fishing community. "Any police action against fishermen can quickly spiral out of control," said another police officer. Udayakumar said people are moving into Idinthakkarai by boat despite the curfew. "But there could be public health problems and food shortage in a few days here in Idinthakkarai," he said.

NPCIL hopes to start Kudankulam nuclear plant by August

Location: Kudankulam, India

India's nuclear operator Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) on Wednesday said it expected things to return to normal at the Kudankulam nuclear power project (KNPP) within the next four to six weeks, paving way for its commissioning by August.

"I expect that in four to six weeks things would come to normal (at Kudankulam)," a top official of the NPCIL said in Delhi.

He said nuclear scientists would require another four months after things return to normal to commission the first 1,000MW unit of the Kudankulam plant.

Hopes for resolution of the months long agitation against KNPP had brightened when the Tamil Nadu government set up a four-member team headed by Prof S Iniyan to look into the concerns of local people over the project.

NPCIL has launched a massive awareness campaign in and around Kudankulam informing the people on the safety aspects of the plant.

Jingles for mobile phones, awareness through FM radio and television and distributing over million handouts are some of the methods adopted by the nuclear operator to inform the people on various aspects of the plant.

The four-member team had visited Kudankulam and reviewed safety measures at the nuclear power plant and also interacted with the protesters.

The panel is expected to give its report to the state government soon.

Meanwhile, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials carried out inspection of the fuel for the KNPP stored at the plant site on Monday.

"We had purchased the fuel from Russia under IAEA safeguards agreement. IAEA officials carried out routine inspections to ensure that the fuel was not diverted for purposes other than generation of power," the NPCIL official said.

However, since the Kudankulam plant is not operational, the officials visited the fuel storage room to cross check the fuel inventory which is kept in a sealed box.

Since the fuel is procured under international safeguards the entire route from the storage room to the reactor where it is loaded is kept under round-the-clock surveillance of video cameras.

"There are multiple CCTV cameras on the entire route to monitor the movement of fuel," he said, adding that utmost care has to be taken to keep them operational round-the-clock.

If the cameras are dysfunctional, it has to be reported to the IAEA and proper logs of have to be maintained for the reason of the failure.

The IAEA inspectors also checked the memory cards of the surveillance cameras to check out whether there were any blackouts, he said.

Two 1,000MW nuclear power plants, built by the NPCIL with Russian collaboration, are in advanced stages of completion and are awaiting the protests to be called of to start operations.