Chennai, Jan 3 (IANS) India’s nuclear power plant operator, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), has shut down one of the two units at its Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) for maintenance and surveillance test purposes, an official said Tuesday.
‘We have shut down the second unit for maintenance activities as well as to carry out some surveillance tests. We plan to restart the reactor Jan 8 or 9,’ MAPS station director K. Ramamurthy told IANS.
NPCIL has two units at MAPS, located at Kalpakkam around 80 km from Chennai, generating around 150 MW each.
The rated capacity of the reactors is 220 MW.
‘Availability of uranium is the issue in increasing the generation,’ Ramamurthy added.
Queried about the steps taken by MAPS to get 5-year operational licence than a limited period one from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), he said: ‘We are planning to augment the cooling water resources while the standby power systems has been augmented with two diesel gensets. We are planning to have seismic trips.’
He said both the units have licence to operate till March 2012.
Every nuclear power plant in India has to renew its operational licence once in five years. With the accident in Fukushima reactors in Japan, additional safety measures have been suggested by AERB to NPCIL for its units. The NPCIl has also been asked for an implementation roadmap.
‘We are looking at the need for a seismic condition qualified building to house emergency equipments. The reactor and turbine buildings are seismic condition qualified buildings,’ Ramamurthy added.
