Power Station of Madras unit 2 has to restart on Monday

Chennai, May 6:The second 220 MW unit of Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS), which operates the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) near Kalpakkam, will resume operations on May 8, a senior official said.

The unit is under annual maintenance shutdown from March this year.Speaking to reporter about 220 MW Unit II, station director Satyanarayana at MAPS said:"Unit Monday,May 8 to restart generation and then go to full power"."We have changed some pipelines in our sea water system and some other devices have also changed," said Satyanarayana.MAPS has two 220 MW units.

"The first unit is now generating around 190 MW.After a short maintenance shutdown sometime later,the unit will be operating at full capacity",Satyanarayana remarked.He said last year MAPS generated 3,205 million units power.Satyanarayana added that as part of their community development programme, MAPS had supplied artificial reefs to benefit the fishing community.

"Clusters of concrete structures are laid into the sea which will enable safe breeding of fish. Earlier, we had supplied artificial reefs to five villages near Kalpakkam and the fishermen have reported positive results. It cost us around Rs 88 lakh," Satyanarayana said.This year another 80 million rupees artificial reef project will be spent on two villages in the adjoining area.