The Hindu : Front Page : Sixth reactor at RAPS attains criticality

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Monday, Jan 25, 2010
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Sixth reactor at RAPS attains criticality

T.S. Subramanian

Chennai: The sixth reactor at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS-6) at Rawatbhatta reached its first criticality at 9.54 p.m. on Saturday, S.K. Jain, Chairman and Managing Director, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), told The Hindu .

He said this was the 19th reactor in India to be commissioned and it had a capacity of 220 MWe.

He said RAPS-6 was the third reactor to receive imported natural uranium fuel after the Nuclear Suppliers Group exempted India from its guidelines.

Mr. Jain said RAPS-5, which was commissioned last month, was now generating 50 per cent of its capacity of 220 MWe and would generate full power in some weeks.

He said the excavation work for building two indigenous Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) of 700 MWe each at Kakrapar near Surat in Gujarat, had begun 10 days ago. These 700 MWe reactors are the biggest indigenous PHWRs to be built in India by the NPCIL.

Mr. Jain said that the excavation for two more indigenous 700 MWe PHWRs, to be built at Rawatbhatta in Rajasthan, would begin in six weeks.

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