The Hindu : Front Page : 540 MWe Tarapur reactor goes critical

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 07, 2005

Front Page

Front Page

540 MWe Tarapur reactor goes critical

By T.S. Subramanian

TARAPUR, MARCH 6. India emphatically signalled that it has come of age in nuclear power technology when its largest and totally indigenously built reactor of 540 MWe capacity at Tarapur reached criticality today. The reactor is called Tarapur Atomic Power Project (TAPP)-4. This is the first time that a 540 MWe reactor has been built in the country.

Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), called it "a momentous occasion" and said it had come about despite technology denial regimes imposed on India.

S.K. Jain, Chairman and Managing Director, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), was also proud that "Tarapur-4 was built when the country was suffering from draconian embargoes."

Joy for engineers

Applause erupted in the state-of-the-art control room of the TAPP-4 unit when at 12.41 p.m., D.K. Goyal, Station Director, TAPP-3 and 4 tersely announced that "sustained chain reaction has started." Engineers of the NPCIL, which has built the reactor, beamed with joy and shook hands. TAPP-3, which is the twin unit of TAPP-4, is coming close behind and it will reach criticality in March 2006. The NPCIL has built 12 other Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) but they are of 220 MWe capacity each.

TAPP-3 and 4 are situated on the shore of the blue black waters of the Arabian sea at Tarapur in Thane district of Maharashtra. These massive reactors have come up adjacent to the first two reactors built at Tarapur in the late 1960s by General Electric of the United States.

Dr. Kakodkar said TAPP-4 was not only the largest nuclear power reactor built in India but it was the largest power unit of any type in the country now. He pointed to another coincidence. When the first two reactors of 210 MWe capacity each were built at Tarapur in the 1960s, they were the largest electricity units in the country then.

The AEC chairman said the fourth reactor had been built seven months ahead of schedule and at a cost much lower than envisaged.

Drop in unit cost

Mr. Jain said the original cost of construction of both TAPP-3 and 4 was Rs. 8,000 crores. It was brought down to Rs.6,525 crores and now to Rs.6,000 crores. So the electricity generated from the two reactors, which was to be sold to the States in the western region at Rs.3.50 a unit, would now be sold to them at Rs.2.65 a unit. The States, which would receive electricity from TAPP-3 and 4 are Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Goa, and Daman and Diu.

M.R. Srinivasan, former Chairman, AEC, and now member of the AEC, said TAPP-4 reaching criticality signalled the maturing of the nuclear power technology in the country. Dr. Srinivasan, whom Dr. Kakodkar described as "the pita maha of the PHWRs" in the country, said, "all components were made here. All inputs were from within the country."

M.K. Narayanan, National Security Adviser, said he felt humble at the "magnificent achievement" of the country's engineers and scientists. "On behalf of the Prime Minister, I would like to say that the nation salutes them and there lies much greater glory ahead."

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