No defects in Koondakulam N-reactor: Narayanasamy

India's nuclear regulator has found no defects in the reactor pressure vessel of the Kudankulam atomic power plant, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

"The inspection of the reactor pressure vessel has been completed in Unit-1. The report of inspection has been submitted to the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board. No defects have been noticed during final inspections," Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy said in reply to a written question in the Lok Sabha.

He said after completing the inspection, application for fuel loading has been submitted to the regulatory authorities. "This will be followed by fuel loading, approach to criticality and power generation after obtaining stage-wise clearance from the AERB," Narayanasamy said.

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited is building two 1,000 MW power plants at a cost of nearly Rs 16,000 crore with Russian collaboration.

The NPCIL is expected to load 163 fuel assemblies into the reactor sometime later this month after getting a nod from the AERB. Each assembly is 4.57 metres long and comprises fuel bundles. The two 1,000 MW Russian reactors will use enriched uranium as fuel and light water as coolant and moderator.