Context:
The third unit of the indigenously developed 700-megawatt electric (MWe) nuclear power reactor at the Kakrapar Atomic Power Project (KAPP3) in Gujarat has commenced operations at full capacity.
About Kakrapar Nuclear Power Plant:
- Location – Gujarat – lies in the proximity of Mandvi, Surat and Tapi river
- The plant was built on an old aluminium plant site – its original name was the Gujarat Atomic Power Project
- Commercial Operation started in 1993.
- KAPP-3 is India’s first 700 MWe unit
- The biggest indigenously developed variant of the Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR)
About Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR):
- A nuclear reactor that uses heavy water (deuterium oxide D2O) as its coolant and neutron moderator.
- Developed with prime objectives of using natural uranium fuel, utilising mined uranium most effectively
- The PHWR technology in India started in the late 1960s with the construction of the first 220 MWe reactor, Rajasthan Atomic Power Station, RAPS-1 under the joint Indo-Canadian nuclear co-operation.
- The Indian PHWR design has evolved from initial 220 MWe RAPS to completely indigenous 700 MWe PHWR through a series of improvements over the last five decades.
- India, today, completely owns this technology as it has mastered all the aspects of this technology – Design, Construction, Commissioning, Operation & Maintenance and Decommissioning
A neutron moderator is a medium that reduces the speed of fast neutrons, ideally without capturing any, leaving them as thermal neutrons with only minimal (thermal) kinetic energy. These thermal neutrons are immensely more susceptible than fast neutrons to propagate a nuclear chain reaction.
Related term in the news:
‘First criticality’ – a technical term that signifies the initiation of a controlled, but sustained nuclear fission reaction
Source: The Indian Express
Previous year question
The function of heavy water in a nuclear reactor is to
[UPSC Civil Services Exam – 2011 Prelims]
(a) Slow down the speed of neutrons
(b) Increase the speed of neutrons
(c) Cool down the reactor
(d) Both (a) and (c)
Answer: (a)
