Koodankulam N-Plant Safe

TIRUNELVELI: The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has declared the the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) safe.  The corporation confirmed this in its recent interim report on safety evaluation of KKNPP systems.It may be noted that a review of nuclear power projects was ordered by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after the Fukushima  disaster. An interim report on all major nuclear power projects, including Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project, was released recently under the title ‘Safety evaluation of Indian nuclear power plants post-Fukushima accident’. The report stated that “the plant has very high capability to withstand severe natural events with margins available from design input parameters”. The report of the six-member task force also pointed out that the plant design took care of Anticipated Operational Occurrences (AOO), Design Basis Accidents (DBA) and Beyond Design Basis Accidents (BDBA) like station blackout, among others. The interim report also stated that the design included provisions for withstanding external exigencies such as earthquake, tsunami, storm, tidal waves, cyclones, shock waves, fire and even aircraft impact on main buildings.Explaining elaborately about the safety features in the plant, the report read that on initiation of emergency protection system, an automatic reactor trip takes place and the reactor becomes sub-critical soon.The containment systems also provide for confinement of radioactivity during an accident, with the Emergency Power Supply Systems (EPSS) in place. Two sets of seismic sensors positioned at the reactor building, with each set containing three accelerometers, are provided for generating Emergency Protection (EP) signals, the report said. The task force also concluded that the heat removal provisions during loss of power supply were also satisfactory.