OREANDA-NEWS. The provisional acceptance certificate of Unit No.2 of Kudankulam NPP has been signed between JSC ASE EC and the operating organization of India. It means that the annual guarantee operation period of the unit has been started. For NPCIL this is a starting point for the unit to be transferred to the commercial operation.

Today, power unit No.2 of Kudankulam nuclear power plant in India is ensured by guarantee obligations of the general designer and equipment suppliers from Russia presented by ASE Engineering company. It means that in case of any failures or technical defects connected with the obligations fulfillment by ASE at Unit No.2 of Kudankulam NPP, non-compliances in the equipment operation will be eliminated by the Russian party. This liability period will last till 30.03.2018 after which the Final acceptance certificate of Unit No.2 by the operating organization is to be signed.

“Kudankulam NPP project is a harmonic combination of traditional active and passive safety systems. A number of systems complied with post-Fukishima IAEA requirements have been implemented at the NPP” - the vice-president for projects in South Asia, Andrey Lebedev informed. - “Particularly, the guarantee operation demonstrates absolute trust on the part of the Indian partners in the Russian nuclear technologies”, - he noted.

Start of the guarantee operation means a successful completion of all required works and tests at the unit. The plant has already generated billions kilowatt-hours of electricity to the national power grid of India and its future contribution to stable and reliable power supply of the country can hardly be overestimated.

At the end of January of 2017 Unit No.2 of Kudankulam NPP was for the first time brought to 100% power.

In August 29, 2016 Unit No.2 of Kudankulam NPP constructed under technical assistance of ASE Group of Companies was connected to the power grid of the Republic of India.

The physical start-up of power unit No.2 was held in May 11, 2016 when upon completion of all preparatory works the first fuel assembly (FA) was installed into the reactor. Totally 163 fuel assemblies were loaded in the reactor. All works were performed jointly by Russian and Indian specialists in the mode of automatic operations, in strict compliance with the schedule and safety regulations. Permit for load was obtained from the Indian Regulatory Board (AERB) after detailed consideration and review of all previously prepared Safety reports. In May 19, 2016 fresh fuel load in the reactor of Unit No.2 of Kudankulam NPP was successfully completed. The works were done completely in the automatic mode for the period of less than 7 days, 4 days ahead of the deadline fixed by the schedule. Then, fuel load control was conducted by IAEA inspectors and after that the works on the reactor sealing were carried out. On 28.06.2016 the permit to reach MCL was obtained from the Indian Regulatory Board (AERB). On 10.07.2016 the power unit was brought to the Minimum Controllable Power Level (MCL).