NPCIL for bridging info gap

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S.A. Bhardwaj, Director (Technical) Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) said on Tuesday that there was lack of communication with the local people, which resulted in the shutting down of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) for six months.

The local people, after watching the visuals of Fukushima disaster in television channels, were worried as what was happening in the Kudankulam plant, “but we failed to take note,” he said interacting with journalists at IIT campus here.

“The Idinthakarai village was behind the walls of the plant and got hidden from our eyes,” he said and admitted that there was lack of communication between the NPCIL and the local people.

“We will not commit the mistake again and launch afresh, an awareness drill in coordination with the district administration to allay the fears of the people.

The NPCIL has readied an emergency preparedness document and a manual to be given to the district authorities to carry out periodic disaster management exercise and instill confidence in the minds of the local people, he said. “It will be a difficult task as the locals are hostile, but not an impossible one,” he added.

After the plant goes critical, the reactor would undergo a thorough physical experiment for a month, after which, the plant would slowly start generating power.

“To begin with, 25 per cent of power would be generated and then reach 100 per cent in a phased manner,” he said.

Mr Bhardwaj said after reaching full capacity, the first unit, on an average, would generate 900 MW of power as the plant would consume 95 MW of power for its operation, he added.

“The spent fuel is not an issue,” he said when asked about the apprehensions expressed by the local people over the disposal of spent fuel. About 30 tonnes of spent fuel would accumulate in a year and they would be kept in a pool for five years, near the reactor. “There is no question of disposing the spent fuel at the plant site,” he assured.

He also announced that the public sector Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) achieved a landmark on Tuesday, when it met its annual target of 32,000 million units during this financial year 2011-12 from its various nuclear plants in the country.