First unit of Kundankulam plant to be operational by month end

The Kudankulam nuclear power project will be commissioned by the end of this month, the government today told the Lok Sabha.

"The Unit-1 is likely to be commissioned by the end of December 2012," Minister of State in the PMO V Narayanasamy said in a written reply.

According to a PTI report, the Minister said the fuel has been loaded in Unit-1 and it has been made ready for approach to first criticality or the start of the nuclear fission chain reaction.

"The process of criticality in Unit-1 would start after the stage-wise clearance from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB)," he was quoted saying.

The AERB had given its nod to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) to load 163 bundles of enriched uranium fuel in the first reactor on September 18.

Meanwhile, anti-nuclear activists have criticised the government in the Supreme Court for exempting the Russian firm involved in setting up the nuclear plant from paying damages in case of mishaps and fixing Rs 1500 crore only as maximum liability on plant's operator.

"The Rs 1500 crore liability violates the principle of strict liability based on the foundation of Article 21 of the Constitution," advocate Prashant Bhushan told a bench of justices KS Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra, appearing for the anti-nuclear activists.

The Kudankulam power plant is the first nuclear project to near completion after the Fukushima disaster. Protests from the church, human rights activists and fishermen have delayed the setting up of the two 1,000 MW VVER reactors at Kudankulam.