By IANS,
Mumbai : The 200-MW unit 2 of the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS), shut down since July 2007, resumed operations Tuesday after feeder replacements and obtaining required fuel, officials said.
The first pressurised heavy water reactor in India, it will operate at full power on imported natural uranium, a spokesperson for Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) told IANS here.
The unit had been shut down since July 2, 2007 for performance improvement upgrades and also, the required fuel was not available. However, after last year’s Indo-US Nuclear Agreement, it got the fuel to restart full-scale operations, the spokesperson added.
The unit was synchronized with the power grid at 10.22 a.m. Tuesday and it would achieve 100 percent power levels this month. It will supply power to Rajasthan.
Earlier, the plant’s operation had been reviewed and cleared by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) at 50 percent and 90 percent power levels.
The unit was set up in November 1980 and started commercial operations in April 1981. Since then, it has generated 27,732 million units of power, according to NPCIL’s Chief Engineer N. Nagaich.
Incorporating the highest safety measures, the complex and technologically advanced project was carried out with entirely indigenously developed technology and tools and tackles.
“India is one of the few countries in the world which have mastered the management of nuclear power plants and developed suitable technology indigenously,” Nagaich added.