Public Awareness e-Newsletter
Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project
May 2013
Issue – 11
Dear colleagues,
In this issue:
- Public voice
- Technical session
- PA activity during the
month
The month of May 2013 has been flooded with general
public visiting KKNPP. About 1600 members have visited
in this month. Request to visit KKNPP is in the increasing
order. The feedback from the visitors has been
encouraging.
Wishing you all a great reading experience.
- Feature article: Question &
Chairman, PA Committee
Answer by
Dr. M.R. Srinivasan
- Nuclear Trivia
Public Voice
The visit of KKNPP on 30.05.2013 was a great
experience for all the 82 members in the visiting team
of Kerala State Electricity Board Officers Association
(KSEBOA), Thiruvananthapuram District. It was a visit
which could have happened once in a lifetime to
almost all the members of the visiting team. A Nuclear
Power Plant in their perception prior to the visit was
totally dissimilar from the actual one we had seen and
learnt there. The thoughts about a Nuclear Plant were
more complex than what we had realized there on
account of its theory, design and security.
The field visit in the afternoon was an exciting
experience for everybody. The lectures in the morning
session helped a lot to understand the Reactor and all
other features. The visit of desalination plant and dyke
with fish protection was really exciting as it was a new
to everybody. At the end of the visit, the visiting team
members realized that the real facts are far away from
the facts spread by some activists and media.
Karayar Dam /
Banatheertham Falls at
Tirunelveli District
We express our sincere thanks to all officers and staff of
KKNPP for their valuable contribution in welcoming us
to experience an exciting visit at KKNPP.
Jaleshkumar A S,
District Secretary-KSEBOA, Thiruvananthapuram
“I have never
seen a credible
scenario for
reducing emissions
that did not include
Nuclear Energy”.
Yvo de Boer
Former Executive
Secretary of the United
Nations Framework
Convention on Climate
Change
Public Awareness e-Newsletter
Page 2 of 5
Technical session - VVER Technology
Quick Boron Injection System (QBIS) :
NPCIL Mission:
To develop nuclear power
technology and to produce
Nuclear Power as a safe,
environmentally benign and
economically viable source of
electrical energy to meet the
increasing needs of country.
The quick boron injection
system is intended to bring the
reactor to a safe shut down stage
by
injection
of
highly
concentrated boric acid solution
in the event of partial failure of
mechanical shut down system.
The system comprises of four
high concentration boron tanks
located in the Reactor Building Containment. Boron solution is flushed
automatically into the reactor coolant by the primary coolant pumps during
partial failure of mechanical shutdown system. This injection is effective
due to pump flywheel inertia even under simultaneous failure of external
power supply.
“If it were ever possible
to control at will the rate
of disintegration of the
PA activity conducted at KKNPP Site:
radio
an
As a part of Public Awareness programme, Students and staff of Schools
of
and Colleges (Science, Polytechnic & Engineering) of Tirunelveli,
elements,
enormous
energy
amount
could
be
obtained from a small
amount of matter.”
Tutucorin and Kanyakumari districts visited KKNPP. They were
familiarized with the nuclear power plant and Safety features of KKNPP
in particular reference to the events at Fukhushima (Japan) and
radiation safety during normal and abnormal operation of Nuclear
power plant.
Ernest Rutherford
st
1 Baron Rutherford of Nelson
Father of Nuclear Physics
Institution
Number of
visit
Number
of persons
Number of
Publications
distributed
School
Teacher Training College
3
321
480
2
229
380
Public
18
1014
1835
Grand Total
23
1564
2695
Public Awareness e-Newsletter
Page 3 of 5
Public awareness outreach programme conducted
outside KKNPP:
Institution/Workshop/Seminar
PA Lecture at Excel college of
Engineering, Erode, Erode District
KKNPP officials briefing the
IX standard students from
different Government Schools
participated in Tamil Nadu
Young Scientist programme
held at St Xaviers College,
Tirunelveli District.
Total
Date
May 18
No. of
No. of
participants Publications
distributed
150
Nil
150
Nil
Few glimpse from Site visit of General Public
General public from
Nariparai &
Kannankulam,
Tirunelveli
Introductory
lecture
at
KKNPP auditorium for the
B.Ed students from Keins
College of Education for
Women, Vallioor, Tirunelveli
Physics teachers from
Higher Secondary
Schools, Trivandrum,
Kerala
General public from Puvioor,
Kanyakumari District is being
briefed about the functioning
of control room
Public Awareness e-Newsletter
Page 4 of 5
Feature article: Q&A from Dr.M.R.Srinivasan,
Ex Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission
Did you know?
Q:
Is Nuclear Power economic in the Indian context?
A:
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India is supplying power
at about Rs. One/kwh from the Tarapur station. The tariff
from Tarapur 3&4 (recent units), Kaiga units and Rajasthan
United
States
of
America
new units is about Rs.3/kwh. At this tariff, NPCIl generates
operates maximum number of
surpluses of about 15% on capital employed, which is used
nuclear power reactors (102
for capital expansion. Cost of power from Kudankulam will
reactors) and constructs three
more reactors as on May 31
st
can be brought into service soon.
2013.
Prior to Fukushima incident at
Japan, USA was constructing
only
be less than Rs.3/kwh, on the assumption the units there
one
Nuclear
Reactor.
reviewed
Now
its
programme
Power
USA
nuclear
and
has
power
started
Coal based power in India at locations away from coal
mines is in the range of Rs.2.5 to 3 per kwh, if Indian coal is
available.
If coastal stations were to use imported coal,
which is more expensive than Indian cool, cost of coal
constructing two more reactors
based power will be Rs.4 to 5 per kwh. Hence, denying
after two years of Fukushima
ourselves power from kudankulam means more expensive
incident at the following sites.
Construction starts
VIRGIL C.
SUMMER-2
(1117
MW(e),
PWR, USA) on
9 March
VOGTLE-3
(1117
MW(e),
PWR, USA) on
12 March
Source: IAEA website
power.
Public Awareness e-Newsletter
Page 5 of 5
Nuclear Trivia
When was the First Self-Sustaining Nuclear Chain
Reaction achieved?
December 2, 1942
On the morning of December 2, 1942, the scientists
were ready to begin a demonstration of Chicago Pile-1
the world’s first nuclear reactor, Fermi ordered the
control rods to be withdrawn a few inches at a time
Chicago Pile-1
(CP-1) was the
during the next several hours. Finally, at 3:25 p.m.,
world's first humanChicago time, the nuclear reaction became selfmade nuclear reactor
sustaining. Fermi and his group had successfully
transformed scientific theory into technological reality.
The world had entered the nuclear age.
Source: U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear
Energy, cience and Technology, Washington, D.C. 20585
Which is the largest nuclear power reactor in the
world?
Civaux 1 & 2, each reactor has a gross capacity of
1561 MWe
Contact details:
Chairman,
Public Awareness
Committee
Kudankulam-627106
Phone:
(04637) 282306
Civaux Nuclear
Power Plant
The Civaux Nuclear Power Plant is located in the
commune of Civaux (Vienne) at the edge of Vienne
River between Confolens (55 km upstream) and
Chauvigny (16 km downstream), and 34 km south-east
of Poitiers. It has two operating units.
Fax:
(04637) 259754
Water from the Vienne River is used for cooling.
E-Mail:
[email protected]
As of 2004, 692 people work at the plant, with 12.9%
women.
The cooling towers of Civaux Nuclear Power Plant are
180 metres in height, making them the tallest cooling
towers in France.
Public Awareness Committee
Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project
Nuclear Power Plants in India
In Operation
- 4780 MW
Under construction - 5300 MW
RAPS (Rawatbhata)
1x100, 1x200, 4x220
2x700
NAPS 1&2 (Narora)
KAPS (Kakrapar)
2x220
2x220
2x700
TAPS 3&4
(Tarapur)
TAPS 1&2
(Tarapur)
MAPS (Kalpakkam)
2x160
2x220
1x500 (PFBR)
2x540
KGS 1 to 4 (KAIGA)
4x220
UPCOMING PROJECTS
Jaitapur (Mah.)
Kovada (A.P.)
Mithi Virdi (Guj.)
Kudankulam (T.N.)
Haripur (W.B.)
Hissar (H.N.)
Chutka (M.P.)
2x1650
2x1000
2x1000
4x1000
2x1000
2x700
2x700
KKNPP 1&2 (Kudankulam)
2x1000
Performance of NPCIL
Particulars
Generation (MUs)
Availability Factor, %
2004-2005
16709
88
2005-2006
17324
89
2006-2007
18804
85
Note: Map for representation purpose only, not according to scale
2007-2008
16956
83
2008-2009
14927
82
2009-2010
18831
92
2010-2011
26473
89
2011-2012
32455
91