The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant has attained criticality Saturday midnight and will start generating safe power for consumption in 40 days, according to Atomic Energy Commission chairman S.K. Sinha.
Four operators were monitoring the “boron dilution process”, which would allow neutron concentration to go up and begin nuclear fission, generating heat. This heat would then operate the turbine to generate power, Mr Sinha told reporters earlier in the day. Chairman K.C. Purohit of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India and its executive director Nageswara Rao were present. “The boron dilution process will be over by mid-night and the reactor will go critical,” Mr Sinha said, insisting that the process “is well in compliance with the established principles”. Experts from NPCIL, Russian Kursatov Institute of Atomic Energy, observ-ers from the Atomic Ener-gy Regulatory Board were monitoring the process.