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FOCUS
SILVER JUBILEE OPERATION
Madras Atomic Power Station
Madras Atomic
Power Station, at Kalpakkam, the Department of Atomic Energy’s first
major project in the indigenization of design, construction,
commissioning and operation and manufacturing of equipment and
machinery for the first Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR)
celebrated its 25 years of successful operation supplying electricity
to the Southern Grid. The completion of the project involved many
challenging tasks, observes
M B RATNANNAVAR
 SMT INDIRA GANDHI, the late
Prime Minister of India was present at Madras Atomic Power Stations
(MAPS) when the unit was synchronized to the Southern Grid in July
1983. MAPS first unit completed 25 years of successful operation on 23
July this year.
Located at Kalpakkam in
Kanchipuram district of Tamil Nadu, MAPS with two units of 220 MWe
capacity, is the first indigineously built pressurized heavy water
type reactors. The indigenization efforts put in by the then stalwarts
paid good results as the PHWR regime continued and today 17 reactors
of this type are in operation. Successful completion of MAPS project
and its operation laid a strong foundation for the first stage of the
Indian nuclear power programme.
When the decision was taken
in 1959 to set up India’s first atomic power station on the west coast
(Tarapur), Dr M R Srinivasan, a member of the project group headed by
M N Chakravarti, was involved in the site selection and also in
drafting the tender specifications for inviting global bids. Dr
Srinivasan took over the charge as the Chief Project Engineer of
Madras Atomic Power Project in 1967. This project was the Department
of Atomic Energy’s first major effort in the indigenization of design,
construction, commissioning and operation of the reactors and
manufacturing of equipment and machinery for the PHWR programme. This
involved various challenging tasks in construction such as the
underground tunnel for the intake of sea-water for condenser cooling,
construction of pre-stressed containment etc.
The period 1974-84 turned out to be a transition phase with many
technological and managerial challenges. When the first nuclear
explosion test was conducted on May 18, 1974 in the Rajasthan desert
heralding the all round capability of India in the utilization of
nuclear energy, all foreign supplies of equipment and material to RAPS
and MAPS were affected due to snapping of ties with the Western world.
Bearing the brunt of affected supplies, the nuclear establishment rose
to the occasion and concentrated its efforts on indigenization of
equipment supply. The role played at that time by the Indian industry,
such as Bharat Heavy Electricals., Larsen & Toubro, Walchandnagar
Industries, MTAR, Kirloskars Brothers and others in manufacturing
equipment is noteworthy. It was a difficult period for the nuclear
establishment to come to terms. The delays and difficulties faced by
the nuclear establishment were the constant questions for which media
were looking for answers at that time.
The experience gained at
MAPS also resulted in evolution of the Indian standardized 220 MWe
PHWR designs for further nuclear power plants. Today not only 220 MWe
reactors are under construction/operation, even with upgraded version
of 540 MWe capacity two units are operating at Tarapur. Efforts are on
to further upgrade to 700 MWe.
Dr. Shreyans Kumar Jain, chairman and Managing director NPCIL,
responsible for operation of all the 17 nuclear reactors in the
country and five units under construction at present, says,” With our
policy of bench-marking operations with international standards in the
field of safety, we organised World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO)’s
International Peer Review of both units in 2007. Based on the
methodology of Peer Reviews, an in house Corporate Review Programmed
for all operating stations has been introduced for the periodic
assessment of safety practices for all the operating plants.” Dr. Jain
is the President of the Board of WANO Governors, based in London. WANO
has its centres at Paris, Atlanta, Moscow and Tokyo.
“The successful completion
of refurbishment and up gradation has demonstrated the world class
capability of NPCIL and the Indian nuclear industry. The competence
developed in work related to the reactor internals will benefit when
decommissioning of nuclear power plants at a later date” added Dr.
Jain
“The indigenously developed technology using high degree of
mechanization and automation has resulted in reduction of cost and
time over runs, and considerable reduction of radiation exposure to
personnel”, revealed Dr. Jain.
According to G. Nageswara Rao, director (Operations) NPCIL, who spent
more than 20 years at the MAPS, “Taking full advantage of the units
under outage for coolant channel replacement and introduction of
sparger in the moderator system, the units were brought back to
original capacity of 220 MWe. The upgradation of the units has also an
added advantage for the station in achieving higher availability and
capacity factors. Now the MAPS has state-of-the-art technology, safety
and plant life has been extended by another 25-30 years. Of course,
this extension will be available to MAPS after inspection and
certification every five years from the Atomic Energy Regulatory
Board.”
Due to the constant problems faced by the MAPS in reaching capacity
factor, these units had to operate at 170 MWe for some time before
major works were taken up for refurbishment. After other major jobs of
replacement of moderator inlet sparger and steam generators was
carried out on Unit-2 the refurbishment and upgradation jobs were done
on reactor internals and other areas of unit-1. These included
replacement of all the coolant channels, moderator inlet spargers,
steam generators, feeders and upgradation of various other systems.
With this upgradation the unit was uprated to 220 MWe from 170 MWe.
After major upgradation and refurbishment work Unit-1 was reconnected
to the grid on January 18, 2006 to supply 220 MWe to the grid.
Nageswara Rao, while in MAPS along with his team developed special
tooling for repair of reactor internals said, "many technical problems
were solved at MAPS in house. “This successful completion of
refurbishment has not only enhanced our skills but also created
confidence to take on such jobs,” says Nageswara Rao
The Zircalloy 2(an alloy of
Zirconium metal) used for the coolant tubes of the reactor, requires
replacement after about ten effective full power years of operation.
NPCIL has developed this technology and carried out coolant channel
replacement in some reactors in a phased manner. After carrying out
this work in Rajasthan unit 2 and MAPS unit-2, this replacement was
taken up in MAPS unit-1. In these replacements, Zirconium Niobium
alloys (a superior material) has been used instead of Zircalloy 2.
The Tsunami that occurred on
December 26, 2004 affecting heavily on the east coast of India, there
was no major damage to the MAPS. According to Station Director K.
Ramamurthy, ‘When the sea water level rose, some sea water pump motors
were tripped and our engineers shutdown the unit-2 immediately safely
(which was operating at that time) and kept in shut down mode, the
Unit-1 was already under long term refurbishment. There was no
radiation or nuclear related concern in any of the facilities at
Kalpakkam. Even the releases to environment have been a small fraction
of the limits prescribed by the regulatory board.”
“In fact there was impact in
some parts of the residential township adjoining the coast due to
water and slush gushing in some buildings. Some of the people who were
nearer to the coast line were cought up in the tidal waves leading to
some fatalities.”
On the social welfare
projects around the station, Ramamurthy said, “Medical camps for the
villagers, assistance in the construction of school building,
provision of teaching aids to schools are some of our welfare
measures. MAPS also supports in direct or indirect employment
opportunities at the power station and also at the residential
township for the villagers.. This has improved their quality of life
and also created a good rapport with them,” said Ramamurthy.
The first indigenous effort
MAPS has secured ISO-14000 certification (Environment Management
System) will go a long way in generating electricity at the same time
maintaining clean environment . Today all the reactors put together
have capacity to generate 4120 MWe and the capacity will increase by
another 3160 MWe when Kudankulam (2 x 1000 MWe each) and Kaiga unit 4
(220 MWe), Rajasthan -3&4 (220 MWe each), and 500 MW fast breeder
reactor at Kalpakkam become operational in the next few months/years.
There will be further addition of nuclear reactors once the nuclear
deal goes through smoothly in all respects.
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The
engineers who headed MAPS |
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Though the Pokharan 2
explosion did affect Indian trade and industries, the constant
effort on indigenization by the nuclear establishment, helped
the nuclear power program sail smoothly that resulted in
Rajasthan3&4, Kaiga Units 1,2, started generating electricity.
Even the Tarapur 3 and 4 units with designed capacity of 540 MWe
for which ground breaking was done in October 1998 was also
completed in shortest possible time of 5 years. The real credit
goes to the Indian nuclear industry that participated in this
venture and supplied the required heavy equipment in time. |
FACT FILE
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Built at a cost of Rs.245.87 crores, MAPS has supplied more than
45,000 million units of electricity. MAPS tariff at present is Rs.1.89
per unit. Tamil Nadu has a share of 330 MWe out of station capacity of
440 MWe, the balance being shared by other beneficiary states in the
southern region. True to the goal of providing clean power with green
environment, all NPCIL stations including MAPS have performed
excellently in terms of safety and have achieved over 280
reactor-years of safe and accident free operation. |
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The two nuclear explosions carried out at Pokharan in Rajasthan desert
in 1974 and 1998 affected India’s nuclear power program with trade
embargo by many countries, mainly the U.S. on equipment and material
supply. As a part of damage control the then BJP Government (in 1998)
gave assurance the world over that no first use of the nuclear
capability developed by India and also no further tests. Gradually the
trade embargo was lifted. |
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