TIRUNELVELI: The second unit of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant Project (KKNPP) may become operational by year-end, hinted Atomic Energy Commission chairman and Department of Atomic Energy secretary Srikumar Banerjee. Banerjee, who addressed presspersons along with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) managing director S K Jain at the KKNPP site on Thursday, said that with the cooperation of the Tamil Nadu government, work at Unit-1 and Unit-2 was progressing steadily towards criticality.

Responding to chief minister J. Jayalalithaa’s repeated demand for 100 per cent allocation of power from the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP), Atomic Energy Commission chairman, Sreekumar Banerjee and NPCIL chairman, S.K. Jain assured at a joint press conference on Thursday that they would recommend an increase in Tamil Nadu’s share of power from KKNPP.

Sometimes, those who are able to understand complexities are flummoxed by the simplest of things. The country's atomic establishment has realised this, ruefully, and at much cost.

Upset with the Tamil Nadu government for going back on its assurances, the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) on Monday announced that it would resume an indefinite hunger strike from May 1 against the two 1,000 MW plants at Kudankulam.

"We have decided to go on hunger protest once again from May 1 onwards as the state government has gone against its assurances given to us. A large number of women will be participating in the hunger protest," PMANE leader M. Pushparayan told agencies over phone from Idinthakarai, a fishing village near the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP).

Instead of coercing the people fighting against injustice and life-threatening projects like Kudankulam Nuclear Power Projects, these people should be protected in a democratic set-up, social activist Neeraj Jain said.

Speaking to reporters here on Thursday, Mr. Neeraj, who was here to deliver lecture at Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, told reporters that countries like India and China alone were ambitiously pursuing nuclear power programmes even as nuclear energy was gradually losing its popularity in other countries across the globe, especially in Europe, after several nuclear disasters, particularly after Fukushima accident.

Expressing satisfaction over the progress in preparing the first reactor of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project for commissioning, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) Chairman and Managing Director S.K. Jain has said the KKNPP was waiting for the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board's clearance for the opening of the reactor pressure vessel for inspecting the internal components' performance and subsequent loading of enriched uranium fuel rods.

An 18-member team of Russian scientists from Atomstroy Export and top NPCIL officials visited the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) in order to speed up the commissioning of Reactor-1.

Atomstroy Export is a Russian engineering company of the state-owned ‘Rosatom’ Corporation involved in constructing nuclear reactors abroad. It has constructed two VVER Reactors, each of 1000 MW at Koodankulam.

In a measure to allay Sri Lanka's fears on the Kudankulam nuclear plant in India's Southern coast, India said today that the plant has high safety standards and a legal mechanism to deal with the t

AREVA Solar, an AREVA subsidiary, has been awarded a contract by Reliance Power to build a 250 MW concentrated solar power (CSP) in Rajasthan.

AREVA said under the contract, it will build two 125 MW CSP plants using its Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) technology and will provide construction management services for the project. The first phase of the project is under construction, with a target commercial operation date of May 2013.

After Kakarapar Atomic Power Station (KAPS) in Gujarat, the State-owned aluminium major Nalco is looking to set up another nuclear power plant, in collaboration with the Nuclear Power Corporation o