We are pleased to report that Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), India’s sole nuclear plant owner and operator, has placed its first order for spent fuel and damaged fuel storage racks for its new away-from-reactor wet storage facility for the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) with Holtec Asia, a Holtec subsidiary. The away-from-reactor facility will serve Units 1 and 2 of KKNPP in the state of Tamil Nadu. KKNPP uses Russian-designed VVER 1000 reactors.
The high-density fuel racks are of the honeycomb genre and will use Holtec’s Metamic® neutron absorbing material, which is the most widely employed neutron absorber in the nuclear industry around the world. The rack modules utilize Holtec’s proprietary detuned honeycomb technology to minimize the modules kinematic response under earthquakes and to maintain a large sub-criticality margin under all postulated accident events.
The KKNPP honeycomb rack modules will be manufactured in India with Metamic® plates to be supplied by Holtec’s Orrvilon Manufacturing Division, located in Ohio. An NPCIL-approved supplier of nuclear components will collaborate with Holtec Asia’s Dahej, Gujarat-based manufacturing plant to assemble the rack modules. Holtec Asia’s Pune, Maharashtra-based engineering and design center will administer and coordinate the project with the Client, NPCIL, in Mumbai.
The KKNPP racks constitute the latest wet storage project for Holtec International in a string of over 120 successful fuel storage rack projects completed by the Company over the past 35 years and supplied to nine countries spread across four continents. This vast experience will help Holtec’s project team execute this project with the utmost safety, efficiency and superb quality, which have been the hallmark of Holtec’s past wet storage projects. Holtec’s SMR-160 advanced light water reactor uses the same honeycomb Metamic® rack module design in its wet storage system.
“We hail this fuel rack project as our humble contribution to the ‘Make in India’ initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, while promoting bilateral trade between the U.S. and India, with each country benefiting from significant white collar and green collar jobs spawned by this project,” says Holtec Asia’s President, Jyoti Chatterjee.
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