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India - turtle pace AtomInfo.Ru, PUBLISHED 22.08.2022 The Indian nuclear agency promises a lot, but is not in too much of a hurry to fulfill its promises, and this causes undisguised irritation in the country's parliament. Date shifts The largest project in the Indian nuclear power industry is a plan for the fleet mode construction of ten power units with PHWR-700 reactors, or IPHWR-700 (Indian PHWR), as they are called in India. Nuclear companies have started contracting equipment for the future fleet, but the construction start dates are constantly shifting to the right. In addition, the start of the head unit (not included in the series!) with the IPHWR-700 is difficult. The role of the head unit went to unit No. 3 of the Kakrapar NPP. It began to be built in November 2010 and was first synchronized with the grid only in January 2021. It was expected that the unit would be put into commercial operation in March 2021. In reality, Kakrapar-3 has not been handed over yet. According to the current version of the schedule, the commissioning is scheduled for December 2022, but no one can guarantee today that the schedule will not have to be revised again. Minister of State Jitendra Singh, who is required by his position to respond to MPs' dissatisfaction with the development of nuclear energy, gives a whole list of reasons as an explanation. Among other things, these are delays in the supply of equipment from Indian manufacturers, financial crises, failures in the cash flows of contractors and their shortage of skilled labor, as well as the covid pandemic, post-Fukushima changes in projects and even the "Russian-Ukrainian conflict" (as Singh calls a special military operation). Ventilation modification The MPs writing to Minister Singh have a different opinion. They are worried about whether there are serious shortcomings in the IPHWR-700 project, which now have to be hastily eliminated. No, there are no shortcomings or safety problems with the project, says Singh. But "modifications" are being made to the project. One of these modifications was associated with the detection of elevated temperatures in certain places of the reactor building during start-up operations. The Nuclear Power Corporation (NPCIL) of India commented on the situation at Kakrapar-3 in a little more detail in a written appeal to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission dated June 1, 2022. The unit was shut down on April 28, 2021, as changes were required in the ventilation system of the pump rooms. These modifications are complex in nature, are implemented after passing through several stages of detailed consideration and require the permission of the regulatory authority for implementation, the NPCIL letter says. The corporation added that the start of the unit will be possible only after the completion of work on the modification of the ventilation system. Similar changes were required for the Kakrapar-4 unit, also with the IPHWR-700 reactor. The unit is 94% ready, but now there is no certainty that it will be possible to launch it, as promised, before the end of 2022. Delays with the head units inevitably affect the planned series of 10 blocks. On the first two units of the series, Kaiga-5/6, only this year it was possible to start excavation work, the first concrete there is expected in 2023. The construction of the remaining eight blocks will begin no earlier than 2024-2025. Other news: 440 nuclear units are operating in the world, 54 units are under construction Construction of first CAP-1000 is started. Russian specialists present reports at IAEA Conference on Fast Reactors A total of 70 reports by Russian participants were presented at the conference. Specialists of SSC RIAR have successfully completed the modernization of the VK-50 reactor This is the first and only operating pressurized boiling reactor with natural coolant circulation in the country. |
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