Kaiga 3rd reactor unit nearing completion

Harsha Kapoor, the site director of Kaiga Nuclear Power project, ha said that construction of fifth and sixth reactor units at Kaiga would begin after the completion of units 3 & 4. Each of them would have generating capacity of 700 MWe, he added.

Speaking at a workshop for journalists organised at Mallapur Township here on Tuesday by the project authorities to create awareness about nuclear power projects, he said the Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) had given the concept of building 220 MWe reactor units now.

All future units would be of higher capacities. The additional cost involved in building such units was not too high, he added. Kapoor said that construction of Unit 3 was at the stage of completion. The process of loading the fuel into the calandria would be completed before the end of this month.

The unit would achieve criticality in the second week of February. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) had given its clearance.

He said the commercial production of the unit was expected to start by the end of March. Regarding Unit 4, which is under construction, he said 85% of the work on it had been completed. It would also achieve criticality this year itself.

On the security aspect of the project, he said the project had a high level of security arrangement.

Bureau of Investigation would verify bio-data of each employee. Contractors had been asked to get the certificate from police authorities before employing any labourer in the project area.

Video cameras had been installed at all sensitive locations.

He said the test conducted on the villagers had revealed that there was no radio activity in them beyond permissible limits.

Kapoor said the NPC had been spending on an average of Rs 40 lakh every year for social welfare activities in the villages around Kaiga.

The schoolchildren had been provided books and uniforms. The project had developed a fish hatchery near the project site to grow fish seedlings. Nearly four lakh seedlings had been released into the Kadra Reservoir recently.

The seedlings were made available for the villagers also. R R Thorat, additional general manager of the project, who inaugurated the workshop said NPC aimed at producing nuclear power as a safe, environmentally benign and economically viable source of electrical energy.

He said all nuclear power projects in the country including Kaiga had been certified for ISO 14001 for environment management system. The Kaiga project was likely to get ISO 18001 certification for safety, health and environment management.

SOURCE: NewIndPress

Topics: NPP, Asia, India