Kudankulam reactor turbine stopped again

The turbine of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project's first reactor which was resynchronized with the southern gridlast Friday, was stopped again on Tuesday "for a series of mandatory tests".

After the 1,000 MWe capacity reactor was synchronised with the grid for the first time with 160 MWe, last Tuesday at 2.45am, it was stopped at 5.40am the same day for tests stipulated by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB). As the test results submitted to the AERB were found to be satisfactory, the 'Operational Team' of the KKNPP was given the green signal to resynchronize the turbine again on Friday night.

Since then, the turbine has been operational in order to generate electricity up to 300 MWe. "As we reached 300 MWe, we stopped the turbine manually for mandatory tests at 8pm," confirmed Site Director, KKNPP, R.S. Sundar.

Sources in the KKNPP said it might take a minimum of five days for resuming turbine operations.