Commercial operation in Kudankulam n-plant delayed

Chennai, July 16 (IANS) The commercial operation in India's first 1,000 MW atomic power plant at Kudankulam once again jumped target date by a month to August, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) has said.

According to the NPCIL, the commercial operation of the first unit is expected to start in August. The physical progress of the project is at 99.85 percent as of March 2014.

The second 1,000 MW unit at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) is expected to start commercial operations December 2014 and the physical progress of the project is at 99.93 percent as of June 2014.

Earlier, the NPCIL said the first unit would commence commercial operations in July 2014.

India's atomic power plant operator NPCIL is setting up two 1,000 MW Russian reactors at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu's Tirunelveli district, 650 km from here. The total outlay for the project is over Rs.17,000 crore.

The KNPP is India's first pressurised water reactor belonging to the light water reactor category.

The first unit attained criticality July 2013, which is the beginning of the fission process.