CHENNAI: After years of delay, marked by technical glitches and protests, the nuclear power plant at Kudankulam in Tirunelveli, south Tamil Nadu is finally a reality. At 2.45am on Tuesday, nearly 160MW produced by unit 1 of the plant was connected to the southern grid. The significant synchronization process came as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wound up his visit to Moscow after talks about possible future agreements for the supply of two more Russian reactors for the Kudankulam plant. While agreements have been signed for two 1,000MW units, talks are on with Russia to clinch a deal for two more 1,000MW units. When commissioned, the nuclear power plant would be the biggest in India in terms of capacity.

“Last night, 160MW was connected to the southern grid. This will be increased after checking the generators and other tests,” site director RS Sundar told TOI. A little over one-tenth of the 1,000MW capacity power flowed into the southern grid from unit 1 — 13 years after its construction. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has given its nod for 500MW and more power will be connected to the grid after more tests, Sundar said.

“Now, more tests will be done and the turbine will be manually stopped from operating. But the reactor will continue to produce steam. After two days, the turbine will be restarted and steam will be passed on to it to produce power,” said Nuclear Power Corporation's executive director (corporate planning and communications) N Nagaich. "This is the normal procedure with any reactor. We are following the same with the unit 1 as well," he said.

Unit 1 became critical in the midnight of July 13 and since then, various tests and procedures have been conducted to resolve problems with the valves. Though planned in 1988, the actual progress of the Kudankulam project started in 2001.

The project was delayed at each and every stage and crossed several deadlines since 2007, when the first unit was to be commissioned. The valve problem dogged officials and the Russian team working along with them.

Apart from problems with the new reactor, the plant was also closed from October 2011 until May 2012 following protests by anti-nuclear activists opposed to the commissioning of the plant. Unit 1, with a capacity of 1000MW is a new type of reactor built in Russia called Voda Voda Energo Reactor (VVER). It is the first pressurized water reactor belonging to light water reactor category in the country. Russian authorities claim they have such reactors functioning in Ukraine, China and a few other nations. In Ukraine alone, there are six units of 1,000MW capacity at Zaporizhzhia, which are similar to that of the Kudankulam unit.