A leakage forced the shutdown of a nuclear power plant in Gujarat after the authorities identified the leakage in one unit of primary heat transport system of Kakrapar Atomic Power Station (KAPS) in the morning. “Things are under control”, said Surat collector Rajendra Kumar.
Advertisement
The leak in the heavy water system was detected around 9am and it was fixed in some time and the temporary emergency was lifted shortly afterwards. One of the two 220 MW units of KAPS was shut down after leakage of heavy water, which is used for cooling off the nuclear reactor core, reported around 9 AM yesterday. The plant’s operator Nuclear Power Corp. of India Ltd. said radiation levels within and outside the plant’s premises are normal.
KAPS is part of Indian atomic power plant operator Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL).
“Consequent to a small leak in Primary Heat Transport (PHT) system, the reactor was shut down as intended as per design provisions”.
Advertisement
It said all the reactor’s safety systems are functioning normally, it said. 30 years after the Chernobyl disaster, dangerously high radiation levels still exist in the food and water produced in the area, especially the forests that have become repositories of radioactive contamination, and will pose a health hazard to the population who live there for centuries to come. “KAPS 1 and 2 consists of two Units of Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors of 220 MWe each”, Jain added. “The district administration has also been informed about the same”, said site officials, adding that the reactor would take about 24 hours to cool down. “All this points to the likelihood that what Kakrapar Unit-1 is undergoing is a small Loss-of-Coolant Accident (LOCA) in progress”. But they were allowed to leave once they were accounted for and it was reported that there was no radiation issue. Site director L K Jain accompanied the teams.
