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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Mood upbeat among nuclear scientists by TS Subramanian

Mood upbeat among nuclear scientists by TS Subramanian

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published Published on Mar 20, 2012   modified Modified on Mar 20, 2012

It was the news S.K. Jain, Chairman and Managing Director of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), was waiting for in the past several months.

The news of the Tamil Nadu Cabinet decision to allow the resumption of work on the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) also sparked a wave of euphoria through the NPCIL's township near Kudankulam in Tirunelveli district .

“The NPCIL is very happy, and we are thankful to the Tamil Nadu government [in general] and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in particular. Under her guidance and the initiative taken by the Centre, we are in a position to allay the fears of the people” over the plant's safety, Mr. Jain said. “We will start the work immediately. Our people are full of excitement. Our entire contingent is moving into the site at 3.30 p.m. today [Monday] itself, so that the work can be started on a war-footing.”

For Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Srikumar Banerjee, “the agony we have felt for a long time that the first reactor which had come so close to generating power but could not be commissioned” was over now. Power from the two units, he argued, was “much needed in Tamil Nadu and the region.”

The first unit was to have been started up in December last. However, the work halted on October 13 after those agitating against the project blocked the NPCIL employees from entering the site. The People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy has been spearheading the agitation against the project since August last, complaining about the safety of the two Russian reactors of 1,000 MWe each.

Mr. Jain said he would again like to “reassure our neighbourhood friends in Kudankulam who had some apprehensions about the plant's safety that we will make these friends part of this journey for starting up this plant and ensure that benefits, in the form of corporate social responsibility and other development work, will reach them.”

He said the NPCIL, “which is a 100 per cent government-owned company will never take any shortcut that will compromise the safe operation of the plant.”

From Tuesday, three shifts would begin at the plant. A big contingent of the NPCIL employees from its operating nuclear power stations at Kalpakkam, Tarapur, Narora, Kaiga, Rawatbhatta and Kakrapar would be assembled at Kudankulam, so that work could proceed round the clock to commission the first unit fast.

Dr. Banerjee said, “It is our duty and responsibility to start up the first unit as soon as possible.” To achieve this, the NPCIL would approach the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board for permission to load the reactor with the fuel (enriched uranium bundles). “There are several steps for that, and we have to fulfil all the requirements… From our side, we will put in as much effort as possible to complete the remaining work to achieve the criticality of the first unit and subsequently the second unit.”

The Hindu, 20 March, 2012, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article3014235.ece


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