New Delhi: NPCIL today contradicted media
reports that one of India`s first nuclear reactors at Tarapur
were almost shut down in September 1973 following abnormal
radioactivity release.
"The scrutiny of the operational history of these units
brings out that both the units of TAPS were operating at a
power level in the range 180-190 MW during the month of
September 1973, the period mentioned in the report," the
Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) said in a
statement.
It said that the Unit-1 of the Tarapur Atomic Power
Station (TAPS) was shut down as per plans from September
11-21, 1973. A turbine trip in Unit-2 had led to shutdown for
a day on September 7-8.
"There was no incidence of abnormal radioactivity release
as reported during September 1973," the NPCIL statement said.
India`s nuclear operator said that in the incident of
May 1992, radioactivity released was only 0.2 per cent of the
permissible value.
On reports of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) study
finding high incidence of radioactive Iodine-129 in seaweeds
around Tarapur, NPCIL said there are no detectable quantities
of it in the effluents discharged from nuclear power plants.
However, Iodine-129 exists in nature in low
concentrations and seaweeds are known to concentrate Iodide
from the sea water to such an extent that the seaweeds are
used in manufacture of Iodine from these, the NPCIL said.
PTI
