Tarapur's unit-3 goes critical

TARAPUR: The country took a giant leap forward in nuclear power generation when its 16th nuclear power plant and second 540 MW Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR), Tarapur Atomic Power Plant (TAPP-3), went critical on Sunday.

"This is one step before connecting power to the western grid and the electricity produced from this plant would be synchronized to the grid in June," the Chairman and Managing Director of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) S K Jain said while announcing the criticality.

The commercial production will start in July. Once it is done, the country's total installed capacity of nuclear energy will go up to 3,890 MW from the existing 3,350 MW of electricity, Jain said.

The fourth unit of Tarapur Atomic Power Plant (TAPP-4), commissioned ahead of TAPP-3, went critical last March and was synchronized to the grid in June 2005. It started commercial production in September, 2005.

 The two units were built at a cost of Rs 6,100 crore although it had an approval cost of Rs 6525 crore, Jain said.