Heavy water leakage at KAPS plant

Ahmedabad: One of the two 220 MW units of Kakrapar Atomic Power Station (KAPS) in Gujarat’s Surat district was on Friday shut down after leakage of heavy water and a temporary emergency situation was declared but there was no radioactive leak and all workers are safe. According to officials, the leakage of heavy water that is used in cooling off of the nuclear reactor core was detected around 9 am and it was fixed in some time and the temporary emergency was lifted shortly afterwards.

Surat District Collector Rajendra Kumar said there was no leakage of radiation at the plant and the situation was under control. The incident took place on a day when Japan marks the fifth anniversary of Fuku-shima nuclear disaster caused by a tsunami.

KAPS site director L.K. Jain in a statement said radiation levels in and outside the plant are normal. “Unit-1 of KAPS, which was operating at its rated power, was shut down at about 9:00 Hrs today. Consequent on a small leak in Primary Heat Transport (PHT) system, the reactor was shut down as intended as per the design provisions. All safety systems are wo-rking as intended,” the statement said.