By IANS,
Bangalore : The third unit of the Kaiga atomic power generating station near Karwar in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka has been reactivated and was linked to the southern grid Wednesday.
“The third unit, which was shut April 8 following a false smoke alarm, has been reactivated and synchronised to the southern grid after completing all surveillance tests,” station director J.P. Gupta told IANS from Kaiga, about 500 km from this tech hub.
Though the unit has capacity to generate 220 MW, it is being operated at 120 MW and the generation will be raised gradually after the unit is stabilised.
“With the resumption of the third unit, all the four units of 220 MW each are operating normally under stringent safety norms and the power is being supplied to the grid,” Gupta said.
Run by the state-run Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), the Kaiga station uses four pressurised heavy water reactors to generate about 880 MW when operated fully.
“Investigation into the smoke detection alarm going off (April 8) in the control room revealed that it was false and there was no fire,” Gupta recalled.
“To be on the safer side, we shut the unit on the following day (April 9) to probe the faulty signal and conduct tests for safety reasons,” he added.
While the third reactor was commissioned in 2007 and fourth early this year (January), the first two reactors went into commercial operation in 2000.