Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant

station currently under construction in Koodankulam in the Tirunelveli district of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Contents

1 History 2 Technical description 3 Controversy 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

History

An Inter-Governmental Agreement on the project was signed on November 20, 1988 by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, for the construction of two reactors. The project remained in limbo for a decade due to the political and economic upheaval in Russia after the post-1991 Soviet breakup. There were also objections from the United States, on the grounds that the agreement does not meet the 1992 terms of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).[1] Since the plant was conceived in the mid-1980s, an anti-nuclear group People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy was opposing the plant for about 25 years[2] due to the Environmental impact of nuclear power and its threat to the people and environment.[3] Construction eventually began in 1997. The cost to India was estimated to be US$ 3 billion (Rs.13,615 Crores) in 2001.[4] A small port became operational in Kudankulam on January 14, 2004. This port was established to receive barges carrying over sized light water reactor equipment from ships anchored at a distance of 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi). Until 2004 materials had to be brought in via road from the port of Tuticorin, risking damage during transportation.[5] In 2008 negotiation on building four additional reactors at the site began. Though the capacity of these reactors has not been declared, it is expected that the capacity of each reactor will be 1000 MW or 1 GW.[6][7] The new reactors would bring the total capacity of the power plant to 9200 MW or 9.2 GW. In June 2011, Sergei Ryzhov, the chief designer of the light water VVER nuclear reactors used at this Nuclear Power Plant was killed in an airplane accident. The plane belonging to the Rus-Air airlines was flying from Moscow to the Karelian capital Petrozavodsk.[8]

Technical description
Two 1 GW reactors of the VVER-1000 model are being constructed by the Nuclear Power corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and Atomstroyexport. When completed they will become the largest nuclear power generation complex in India producing a cumulative 2 GW of electric power.[9] Both units are water-cooled, water-moderated power reactors.[10] The first was scheduled to start operation in December 2009 and the second one was scheduled for March 2010. Currently, the official projections put unit 1 into operation in June 2011, and unit 2 will go in March 2012.[11][12][13] Four more reactors are set to be added to this plant under a memorandum of intent signed in 2008.[14] A firm agreement on setting up two more reactors, has been postponed pending the ongoing talks on liability issues. Under an inter-government agreement signed in December 2008 Russia is to supply to India four third generation VVER-1200 reactors of 1170 MW.[15] The reactors have some advanced safety features like passive heat removal system, double containment, Core Catcher, and hydrogen re-combiner instead of conventional systems.[16]

Controversy
In the latter part of 2011, protesters living around the Russian-built Koodankulam nuclear plant in the southern Tamil Nadu province blocked highways and staged hunger strikes, trying to prevent construction work. They demanded the plant's closure, as they feared it will cause a nuclear accident similar to Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster.[17] However by February 2012, there were widespread protests in favour of commissioning the nuclear power plants from other parts of the affected province, due to the province's massive power deficit of 3-4000 MW resulting in power cuts of 4-8 hours in most areas [18]. Renowned aeronautical scientist and former President of India A. P. J. Abdul Kalam after a personal visit to the plant said that Koodankulam Nuclear Plant is safe and the plant was essential for India. He added that anyone who was worried about the safety of the plant could meet him personally at any time. [19][20] A center panel constituted by the Government of India, which did a survey of the safety features in the plant, said the Koodankulam reactors are the safest and fears of the people are not based on scientific principles. Dr. Muthunayagam, the panel's convener, also added that the protesters have asked for some documents which are not related to the safety of the reactor, and hence he suspects the very nature of their questions. [16] This conclusion is echoed by the Minister of State V Narayanasamy because the documents demanded by the protesters are not on the safety aspects of the plant. [21] In response to the center panel report, protesters wrote an open letter to the Chief Minister Jayalalithaa that the center panel's report is "ill-baked and incomplete eyewash report". Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P Chidambaram and the Minister of State V Narayanasamy have all separately revealed that the protests at the Koodankulam nuclear plant was funded and instigated by foreign NGOs [22]. On February 28, a German national close to the protest leaders was arrested from a lodge near the nuclear plant and deported for the

alleged funding activities [23]. The feeling in the Indian establishment, on interacting with the protesters in order to answer their concerns, is that the movement has been created to scuttle India's indigenous three-stage closed fuel cycle program, which was put in place by independent India's desire to provide power for its future generations and which will make India independent of all fossil fuels.[24] Kudankulam is a place in the Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu, India. It is situated 25 km north-east of Kanyakumari and 35 km from Nagercoil. The place is notable as the construction site of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant. It is also the location of hundreds of windmills used for power generation, eight of which are located inside the grounds of the nuclear plant.[1] Since the beginning of 2011, this place has been embroiled in a nuclear plant controversy over fears of the plant safety.
Since August 2011, Tamil Nadu has witnessed renewed protests against the commissioning of the first of two 1,000 MW power plants as part of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) The protest against nuclear power plants is not isolated to Koodankulam. Even as we speak, fisherfolk and farmers in Jaitapur, Maharashtra, and farmers and residents of Gorakhpur, Haryana, are saying a loud No to nuclear power plants in their area. Haripur, West Bengal, which was to be a site for Russian reactors, will no longer be on the nuclear map, as the state government bowed to local sentiment and declared West Bengal a nuclear-free state..