Madras Atomic Power Station
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Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) located at
Kalpakkam Kalpakkam is a township in Tamil Nadu, India, situated on the Coromandel Coast 70 kilometres south of Chennai. A conglomerate of two villages (Puduppattinam and Sadurangappatinam) and a DAE township, it is about from Thiruvanmiyur and fro ...
about south of
Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, is a comprehensive
nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...
production, fuel reprocessing, and
waste treatment Waste treatment refers to the activities required to ensure that waste has the least practicable impact on the environment. In many countries various forms of waste treatment are required by law. Solid waste treatment The treatment of solid wastes ...
facility that includes
plutonium Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibi ...
fuel fabrication for
fast breeder reactor A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes. Breeder reactors achieve this because their neutron economy is high enough to create more fissile fuel than they use, by irradiation of a fertile mate ...
s (FBRs). It is also India's first fully indigenously constructed nuclear power station, with two units each generating 220 MW of electricity. The first and second units of the station went critical in 1983 and 1985, respectively. The station has reactors housed in a reactor building with double shell containment improving protection also in the case of a
loss-of-coolant accident A loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) is a mode of failure for a nuclear reactor; if not managed effectively, the results of a LOCA could result in reactor core damage. Each nuclear plant's emergency core cooling system (ECCS) exists specifically t ...
. An Interim Storage Facility (ISF) is also located in Kalpakkam. The facility is also home to India's first large scale
fast breeder reactor A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes. Breeder reactors achieve this because their neutron economy is high enough to create more fissile fuel than they use, by irradiation of a fertile mate ...
of 500 MWe called the
Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor The Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) is a 500 MWe fast breeder nuclear reactor presently being constructed at the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) in Kalpakkam, India. The Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) is responsible ...
operated by
BHAVINI The Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (BHAVINI) is a wholly owned Enterprise of Government of India under the administrative control of the Department of Atomic Energy incorporated on 22 October 2003 as Public Limited Company under the co ...
and will also be the site of first two
FBR-600 The Fast Breeder Reactor-600 (FBR-600) or Indian Fast Breeder Reactor (IFBR) or Commercial Fast Breeder Reactor (CFBR) is a 600-MWe Breeder reactor, fast breeder nuclear reactor design presently being designed as part of India's three-stage nucl ...
commercial fast breeder reactors.


History

During its construction, a total of 3.8
lakh A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2,2,3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. For ex ...
(380,000) railway sleeper (logs) were brought from all over India to lift the 180 ton critical equipment in the first unit, due to lack of proper infrastructure and handling equipment. the
Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor The Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) is a 500 MWe fast breeder nuclear reactor presently being constructed at the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) in Kalpakkam, India. The Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) is responsible ...
(PFBR) was in its final construction stage, and was expected to reach criticality in March 2017 with 500 MW of electricity production. The following month the loading of the 1750 ton liquid
sodium Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin ''natrium'') and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable iso ...
coolant were expected to happen in four to five months, with sources in the
Department of Atomic Energy The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) (IAST: ''Paramāṇu Ūrjā Vibhāga'') is a department with headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. DAE was established in 1954 by a Presidential Order. DAE has been engaged in the development of nucl ...
reporting that criticality would likely be reached only around May 2017.


Reactors

The facility houses two indigenously built Pressurised Heavy-Water Reactors (
PHWR A pressurized heavy-water reactor (PHWR) is a nuclear reactor that uses heavy water ( deuterium oxide D2O) as its coolant and neutron moderator. PHWRs frequently use natural uranium as fuel, but sometimes also use very low enriched uranium. The ...
s), MAPS-1 and MAPS-2 designed to produce 235 MW of electricity each. MAPS-1 was completed in 1981, but start-up was delayed due to a shortage of heavy water. After procuring the necessary heavy water, MAPS-1 went critical in 1983 and began operating at full power on 27 January 1984. MAPS-2 obtained criticality in 1985 and began full power operations on 21 March 1986. With India not being a signatory to the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation ...
the reactors have since 1985 been delivering their
spent fuel Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor (usually at a nuclear power plant). It is no longer useful in sustaining a nuclear reaction in an ordinary thermal reactor a ...
to the
nuclear reprocessing Nuclear reprocessing is the chemical separation of fission products and actinides from spent nuclear fuel. Originally, reprocessing was used solely to extract plutonium for producing nuclear weapons. With commercialization of nuclear power, the ...
plant at Tarapur, providing the country with unsafeguarded
plutonium Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibi ...
. A beachhead at Kalpakkam also hosts India's first indigenous Pressurised (light) water reactor (PWR). The 80 MW reactor was developed by
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is India's premier nuclear research facility, headquartered in Trombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by Homi Jehangir Bhabha as the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) in January 195 ...
(BARC) as the land-based prototype of the nuclear power unit for India's nuclear submarines. This unit does not come under MAPS.


Units


Incidents

The reactors' coolant pipes have been plagued by vibrations and cracking with substantial cracking in the reactor coolant system. This cracking has led to the discovery of
Zircaloy Zirconium alloys are solid solutions of zirconium or other metals, a common subgroup having the trade mark Zircaloy. Zirconium has very low absorption cross-section of thermal neutrons, high hardness, ductility and corrosion resistance. One of the ...
pieces in a moderator pump, requiring the power generation to be lowered to 170 MW. On 26 March 1999 large amounts of heavy water spilled at MAPS-2, exposing seven technicians to heavy doses of radiation.


See also

*
List of power stations in India The total installed power generation capacity in India as on July 31, 2022 is 404,132.95 MW with sector wise & type wise break up as given below. For the state wise installed power generation capacity, refer to States of India by installed power ...
*
Nuclear power in India Nuclear power is the fifth-largest source of electricity in India after coal, gas, hydroelectricity and wind power. , India has 22 nuclear reactors in operation in 8 nuclear power plants, with a total installed capacity of 7,380 MW. Nuclear p ...


References


External links


Nuclear power Corporation of India Ltd

Plants Under Operation: Madras Atomic Power Station


{{Power Plants of Tamil Nadu Nuclear reprocessing sites Nuclear power stations in Tamil Nadu Nuclear power stations with reactors under construction Buildings and structures in Kanchipuram district Power plants in Chennai Civilian nuclear power accidents 1984 establishments in Tamil Nadu