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An atomic power station is a type of power station that uses nuclear reactions to generate electricity. To produce heat, nuclear power plants use the energy released by a nucleus of an atom when it splits or breaks. That heat is used to generate turbines that produce electricity. The resulting power is very clean, as it produces virtually no emissions or pollution. Built in the late 1960s, the Kaiga Nuclear Power Plant is one of India’s oldest nuclear power plants. It uses the pressurised heavy water reactor design and is one of the twenty-six operating nuclear power reactors in the country. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India owns the plant. The first unit of the power station was commissioned in November 2000, with the second unit coming in March 2000.
Kaiga Atomic Power Station
One of the world’s largest atomic power stations, Kaiga Atomic Power Station, is located in Kaiga, near river Kali in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka state in Western India. This power plant is called KGS, an acronym for Kaiga Generating Station. The Kaiga Atomic Power Station is one of the six atomic power plants owned and operated by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India. The construction of this plant began in 1989 and was first commissioned in 2000. Hence, it has been in operation since 2000. It is a 2,400 megawatt (MW) pressurised water reactor (PWR) plant and is the first nuclear power plant in India to use India’s indigenous heavy water reactor technology. The Kaiga Atomic Power Station is also the first and only nuclear power plant in India to have been built with full foreign collaboration and assistance.
Units of Kaiga Atomic Power Station
The Kaiga Atomic Power Station is divided into six units- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Out of them, the last two units are being planned and haven’t been operational yet. The construction and operation of Kaiga-1 and Kaiga-2 began in 1989 and 2000, respectively. The construction of units three and four began in 2002, and the operation of Kaiga-3 began in 2007. The operation of Kaiga-4 began in 2011. Kaiga-5 and Kaiga-6 are still being planned and revised.
The first four units use the same reactor, that is, the small-sized IPHWR-220 and the other two units would use IPHWR-700. The reactors for these units are supplied by NPCIL or BARC. Moreover, the cooling sources for the coolant required by these units are Kadra Dam and Kali River. The power supplied by the four units in operation is 4×220, and the power that the other two planned units will supply will be 2×700. These units have a capacity factor of 92.02% and give out an annual net output of 7094 GWh.
History
On 27 November 2010, the fourth unit out of Kaiga Atomic Power Station went critical and was connected to the southern power grid in January 2011. Kaiga Atomic Power Station is the third largest nuclear plant after Tarapur and Rawatbhatta power stations. Indigenous uranium is used to fuel this plant. The units are currently operating at 70% of their capacity and will run at 100% efficiency only when there is a sufficient supply of fuel. It supplies energy to the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. It was stopped in 2018 for operating continuously among all nuclear power plants.
Technological Information
The PHWR reactors in these units make use of uranium to fuel themselves. They use heavy water as a moderator as well as a coolant. The reactor generates saturated steam to produce electricity. The pressure is kept constant for the heavy water to reach its boiling point without boiling. This helps in lesser use of fuel as the reactor operates without constantly consuming fuel. This reactor is built in a way that the temperature of the moderator is kept low. This is different from the conventional reactors in which the moderator runs hot easily since the neutrons are not thermal enough.
Drawbacks of PHWRs
They have a very high capital cost.
Natural unenriched uranium has a lower energy content which calls for frequent fuel refills as compared to enriched uranium.
A higher volume of fuel is spent because of the higher moment in natural Uranium as compared to enriched uranium. However, unenriched uranium can be stored much more easily because it is less reactive with a lesser ability for heat generation.
Conclusion
The Kaiga atomic power station is an atomic power station being built in Kaiga, India. It was developed and constructed by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), a government-owned Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) licensee and the sole EPC contractor for the project. The PHWR reactors at the power station make use of uranium to fuel themselves. They use heavy water as a moderator as well as a coolant. It supplies energy to the Southern territories such as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
