Second refuelling outage begins at Kudankulam

The unit is likely to come on stream after the 65-day activity

Safety first: During the shutdown, all systems will be tested as per the regulations.

The scheduled second refuelling outage of the first reactor of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) commenced on Thursday.

The 1,000 MWe VVER (water-cooled water-moderated reactor) that belongs to the pressurised water reactor category uses enriched uranium oxide fuel to generate electricity. At the end of the fuel cycle, which approximately lasts for 7,000 hours, the used fuel assemblies in the reactor are replaced with fresh fuel assemblies. For this scheduled activity, the unit was shut down on Thursday at 5.53 a.m. The first refuelling outage was done a year ago, according to S.V. Jinna, Site Director, KKNPP.

As part of the reactor cool-down process, the steam release devices will also be tested during which ambient noise level may marginally increase for few minutes.

Mandatory tests

It is one of the planned activities and part of mandatory tests as per Atomic Energy Regulatory Boar guidelines. And, the test will be carried out only during the day. The unloading of spent fuels from the reactor core and loading of fresh fuels will be carried out with the help of a fully automated machine.

Besides, maintenance of various systems and equipment will also be carried out during this outage. Subsequently, all necessary tests will be conducted and all safety systems tested as per the regulations. After fulfilling all these requirements which is likely to consume 65 days, the unit will come on stream. After the first reactor was first synchronised with the Southern Grid on October 22, 2013, it has so far generated 14,126 million units, Mr. Jinna said.