Kaiga nuclear power plant to get two more units.

The Kaiga plant will get two more nuclear power generation units with a capacity of 700 MW each at a cost of about Rs. 6,000 crore. The good news for power-starved Karnataka is that its share from this nuclear power station will go up from 28 per cent to 50 per cent of the total energy generated, once the two new generating units begin operation.

Speaking to reporters during a conducted tour of the Kaiga Generating Station located at Kaiga in Uttara Kannada district recently, Site Director H.N. Bhat said the Union Cabinet had given permission for enhancing the nuclear power generation at Kaiga by 1,400 MW. 'We already have four generating units with a capacity of 220 MW each. Now the sanction is for the fifth and the sixth units with a capacity of 700 MW each,'

Mr. Bhat said. He said the Kaiga station, with a power generation capacity of 880 MW from all the four units, supplies 28 per cent of the power generated to Karnataka.

'Once the fifth and the sixth generating units get critical, Karnataka will get 50 per cent of the total power generated,' he said.

He clarified that the station had adequate land for the new units, and there was no question of any further land acquisition for the project. Mr. Bhat said the highest level of safety had been put in place at Kaiga.

'Environmental Survey Laboratory, an independent unit under BARC, Mumbai, which carries out environmental monitoring, had found there was no appreciable change in radioactivity in the region’s environment due to the reactor operation. Actual annual dose computed at exclusion zone boundary is only 0.1 per cent of Natural Background Radiation,' he said.

Even the tests carried out by Mangalore University had revealed that there was no appreciable change in radioactivity in Kaiga environs due to the pre- and post-reactor operation. The study had found that radiation exposure to the public was negligible and insignificant, he said.

THE HINDU