40 percent fuel loading over at Koodankulam plant

About 40 per cent of the fuel loading work at Unit 1 of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant Project (KKNPP) has been completed in a week’s time.

As of Tuesday, around 63 assemblies, filled with the enriched Uranium 235 fuel, were installed into the reactor core of the 1,000 mw unit. As many as 63 assemblies of the total 163 have been filled, confirmed sources in the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL).

“The remaining 100 assemblies will be filled in the next two weeks. Around 100 scientists, including Russians, are directly involved in the process in the reactor containment island building of the 1,000 mw unit,” an official detailed.

Scientists from the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), the Atomic Energy Commission and the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board were monitoring the fuel loading process.

Meanwhile, officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were keenly monitoring the fuel movement in the plant with the help of the round-the-clock live footage recorded in the CCTVs.

Following the green light from the AERB, the fuel loading process commenced early on September 19.