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India's largest N-power
reactor ready in 2 weeks 

What is India News Service, Monday, 24 January 2005, 2000 hrs IST

Tarapur-4, the largest indigenously designed and built reactor in India, will be commissioned in two weeks.

Loading of natural uranium fuel bundles in the first 540 MWe nuclear power reactor at Tarapur, about 110 km from Mumbai, has begun. Tarapur-4, the largest indigenously designed and built reactor in India, will be commissioned in two weeks. 

S.K. Jain, Chairman and Managing Director of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), loaded the first fuel bundles on January 22 in the massive reactor, which is the fourth unit of the Tarapur Atomic Power Project (TAPP). This signalled the start of continuous fuel loading, which will go on for the next five or six days. 

Jain called it "a significant milestone in a nuclear power plant" and "in technical jargon, it is reverse counting for the commissioning of the reactor." He called TAPP-4 "the first of its kind in the country because for the first time the NPCIL has built a totally indigenous reactor of 540 MWe capacity." This is a Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR). 

India has so far built 12 PHWRs of 220 MWe capacity in different parts of the country. While TAPP-4 has been built ahead of TAPP-3, the third unit, also of 540 MWe capacity, "is coming closely behind," Jain said. It will be commissioned before the end of 2005. 

The NPCIL Chairman said the loading of the fuel bundles into TAPP-4 "is really a proud moment for all us because all the systems of the reactor have been successfully integrated and it has met all the [regulatory] requirements so far." After the fuel loading is over, the moderator systems will be flushed with heavy water. Later, the moderator and other systems will be filled with heavy water.

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