The government is keen to boost nuclear power capacity and is planning to add about 5,000 MW at Kudankulam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today.

“In years ahead, we are determined to pursue an ambitious agenda of nuclear power generation. At Kudankulum alone, five more units of 1,000 mega watt each are planned. In our journey of cooperation, we plan to build a series of bigger nuclear power units,” Modi said while dedicating, along with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project's (KKNPP) first unit to the nation through video conference on Wednesday.

Kundankulum 1 is an important addition to India's continuing efforts to scale up production of clean energy and it is the largest single unit of electrical power in the country, he added.

KKNPP Unit started commercial operation from mid night of December 31, 2014 and it has so far generated 335 crore units. Of the 1,000 MW generated, Tamil Nadu’s share is 562 MW, while the rest goes to other southern states.

Also, the second unit of KKNPP attained criticality on July 10. This unit will add about 1,000 MW to the southern grid. This will be India’s 22nd nuclear power reactor. With this, Kudankulam site houses two largest power reactors in the country.

Installed capacity

The present nuclear power capacity of 5,780 MW in the country will increase to 6,780 MW with the start of commercial operation of Kudankulam Unit-2 (KKNPP-2). The installed capacity is expected to increase to 10,080 MW by the year 2019 on progressive completion of projects under construction.

In addition, two more projects – KKNPP 3&4 (2X1000 MW) at Kudankulam, in foreign technical cooperation with the Russian Federation, and GHAVP 1&2 (2X700 MW) at Gorakhpur, Haryana – based on indigenous technology have been accorded sanction and work has commenced on these projects. The installed nuclear power capacity will reach 13,480 MW by about 2023.

India and Russia signed an agreement in December 2008 for setting up 3-6 units at Kudankulam site, which was found to have the optimum potential for locating six units each of 1,000 MW.

The government has accorded ‘in principle’ approvals for setting up four more units, according to an official statement.

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