Gujarat: Third unit at Kakrapar Atomic Power Plant achieves criticality
- IBEF
- July 23, 2020
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has achieved criticality of a third unit of 700 MWe (Megawatt electric) at the plant in Tapi district which is fully based on indigenous technology. This comes almost 25 years after the last unit was commissioned at Kakrapar Atomic Power Plant.
“The first two units at Kakrapar of 220 MWe each were based on Canadian technology. The third unit is fully indigenous,” said an official from the power plant. The first unit was the Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) of 220 MWe and was commissioned on May 6, 1993, while the second unit of similar capacity was commissioned on September 1, 1995.
Whereas the third reactor at Kakrapar is the front runner in a series of 16 indigenous 700 MWe PHWRs which are under various stages of development. First criticality was achieved by the third unit at Kakrapar at 9:36 am on July 22, 2020. Scientist were congratulated over the tweet by both Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Mr Amit Shah for this feat.
“A reactor is said to be critical when the nuclear fuel inside a reactor sustains a fission chain reaction, where each fission event releases a sufficient number of neutrons to sustain a series of reactions. Criticality is first step towards power production. In the coming days, we will be testing various parameters and the power production will be slowly scaled up,” the official told.
This development was termed as “historic” by NPCIL, Indian industries have manufactured the components and equipment for the reactor and the construction and erection was undertaken by various Indian contractors.
The work on third and fourth unit of 700 MWe each began in 2011, the official said. Loading of fuel for the reactor core was completed by mid-March 2020. The indigenous 700 MWe PHWRs have advanced safety features like steel lined inner containment, passive decay heat removal system, containment spray system, hydrogen management system, among others.
So far, NPCIL has seven more reactors under construction including a fourth unit of 700 MWe at Kakrapar. These reactors are expected to be completed and achieve criticality next year onwards.
Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.
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