The third unit of the Kaiga nuclear plant in Karnataka is expected to begin generating energy by the end of February but supply of power from it will be delayed, a top official said today.
The 220MW reactor -- the 17th one in the country -- will be "made critical" by the end of February but its "commercialisation" may be delayed by over a month due to the non-arrival of critical turbine components from Ukraine, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) Chairman and Managing Director S K Jain told PTI here.
Though 99.9 per cent of the required components had arrived, Jain said NPCIL was facing "trans-chart difficulties for the last part of the consignment".
Kaiga's third unit was earlier scheduled to be linked to the southern power grid by March.
The Shipping Corporation of India is trying its best to move the consignment to India as soon as possible but there was some logistic problem as the port in Ukraine is not visited directly by its ships, and SCI would have to depend on other liners.
The turbine components have been loaded but "it is a matter of time and SCI is trying their best to get them to us as soon as possible", Jain said.
Ukraine's industry was selected by NPCIL for supplying the critical equipment through a global tender.
Jain also said the process of rehabilitating unit one of the Narora atomic power plant was complete and that this was the first time that laser cutting and remote control devices were used to replace the coolant channel and feeder pipes.
SOURCE: PTI
DATE: Feb 16, 2007