The northern grid of the country is slated to receive 1,180 MW capacity out of the total 4,560 MW generated from nuclear power in the country with the commencement of commercial operation of RAPS-6 at Rawatbhata today.
"With Rajasthan Atomic Power Station unit-6 synchronisation on March 28 and commercialisation from today, the northern grid of the country will receive 1,180 MW capacity out of the total 4,560 MW generated from nuclear power in the country," chairman and managing director of Nuclear Power Corporation of India told PTI.
The commencement of operations here means the nuclear park generates one third of India's nuclear power.
"With the commissioning of RAPS-6, the number of nuclear power reactors in commercial operation in the country, has increased to 19. Thus, India joined group of the USA, France, Japan, Russian Federation, Republic of Korea and United Kingdom in terms of number of reactors in operation," Jain said.
RAPS units 2, 5 and 6 are currently working with imported uranium fuel and are under International Atomic Energy
agency's safeguards and units 4 and 5 soon join them.
The generation from RAPS 5 and 6 will be shared by the states in Northern Electricity region with a tariff of Rs3 per unit as per the market rate, he said.
Meanwhile, two construction of two 700 MW each has begun at Rajasthan nuclear island, Jain said.
The nuclear power generation in the country in 2009-10 is 18,800 million units, 26 per cent higher than in 2008-09 and NPCIL plans to augment the generation next year by more than 130 per cent of the generation in 2009-2010, Jain said.
Highlighting the beauty of nuclear power plants that they could operate in more than 100 per cent capacity as the plants do not have fuel problem, Executive director, Corporate Planning, NPCIL, S Thakur said.
RAPS 5, which is currently operating at 212 MW non-stop since January this year can reach up to 235 MW (instead of its original 220 MW capacity), he said.
RAPS unit 2 which is rated for 200 MW is running at 209 MW since January 2010.
Thakur also said it was significant that Madras Atomic Power Station Unit 2 (MAPS-2) is in continuous operation since January 25, 2009 (nearly 430 days), RAPS-3 since June 26, 2009, Tarapur Atomic Power Station unit 2 since July 22, 2009, Kakrapar Power Station Unit 2 since July 4, 2009, Kaiga Atomic Power Station since July 4, 2009.
"All these are possible in nuclear power generation because of excellent thermodynamic efficiency of Turbine Generation (TG) sets of nuclear power plants," Thakur said.
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