Located in the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the Kudankulam plant’s unit 2 has a capacity of generating up to 1,000 MW of power. As per available data, Unit 2 of KKNPP had generated 415 MW of power, on Thursday prior to the outage.

According to the Power System Operation Corporation Limited (POCOSO), the outage which has been classified as a 'forced outage', took place at 11:13 am on Thursday

Unit-2 of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP), the largest nuclear plant in India suffered an outage on Thursday, owing to a “loss of power supply to control rods”.

Located in the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the Kudankulam plant’s unit 2 has a capacity of generating up to 1,000 MW of power.

According to the Power System Operation Corporation Limited (POCOSO), the outage which has been classified as a “forced outage”, took place at 11:13 am on Thursday. As per available data, Unit 2 of KKNPP had generated 415 MW of power, on Thursday prior to the outage. However, there was no time specified for its expected resumption of operations.

Simply put, a control rod is a device that is used to absorb neutrons. Control rods are meant to provide real-time control of the fission process in a nuclear reactor and ensure that it remains active. The nuclear reaction taking place in the reactor core can be slowed down, accelerated or stopped completely by using the control rods. Likewise, the power output of a nuclear power plant can also be regulated by means of a control rod.

KKNPP comprises six units of Light Water Reactors (VVERs), each of 1000 MW capacity. Set up in technical cooperation with the Russian Federation, the reactors at Kudankulam are state-of-the-art in terms of safety. They incorporate a combination of advanced, multi-layered safety features ensuring the highest level of safety for the plant, the public and the environment.

Being implemented in three phases of 2x1000MW each, units 1 & 2 are operational, whereas 3 & 4 are about 50 per cent into construction. The construction of Units 5 & 6 is expected to take up to seven years. The completion of all these projects over the coming years will provide 6000MW clean energy to the country.