Chennai: With the first unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant all set to commence power generation, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday demanded that the entire power produced from it be given to the state.
"Now I understand that nuclear fuel loading is going to take place in the next few days in the first unit of the plant of 1000 MW capacity. It is expected that criticality will be reached in the following 20 days or so, leading to power generation from the first unit of the plant", she said in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Recalling her March 31 letter to him in this regard, she said details with regard to action on the allocation of the entire power to be generated from the KNPP to the state were "yet to be known".
In the backdrop of the first unit of KNPP expected to attain criticality, Jayalalithaa said she would like to remind the Prime Minister about her earlier request.
"I am sure that you will do the needful by accepting the absolutely justified demand of our state", she said.
After giving green signal to the KNPP, Jayalalithaa on
March 31 had demanded that the entire 2000 MW power to be generated by its two units be given to the state in view of the severe power shortage.
She had said that it would be "proper and justifiable that the entire power to be generated from the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant is made available to Tamil Nadu."
"This is also inevitable as the transmission corridor congestion problem still continues and has also been brought to your notice," she said.
The Chief Minister had pointed out that out of the 2000 MW to be generated by two units in KNPP, Tamil Nadu has been allocated a share of 925 MW only.
She recalled she had already made a request of allocation of 1000 MW from Central pool last year against which a "mere 100 MW" was made available to the state which was facing "severe power shortage".
Meanwhile, Consul General of the Russian Federation in South India Nikolay A Listopadov told reporters at a function here that Russian and Indian scientists are doing their best to commission the first unit of KNPP as soon as possible.
Vouching for the safety of Kudankulam plant, he said, a similar VVER type nuclear power plant was inaugurated recently by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently near Moscow.
PTI
