Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) is expecting the permission from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board to fuel the first unit of Kundankulam nuclear plant because the hot run of the reactor (trial run without real fuel) was a grand success.

"We are hopeful of getting the board's nod in a week's time. We will then remove the dummy fuel (similar to the real fuel in terms of specifications but without enriched uranium) and start loading the real nuclear fuel," said, S. K. Jain, Chairman and Managing Director of NPCIL.

According to Jain, reactor's life expectancy was around 60 years and the NPCIL has the in-service testing capacity for which data was to be collected after hot run. Pre-service inspection will be completed in a couple of days while fine tuning of data is going on.

"We have completed integrated emergency core (reactor core) cooling system simulation. This is a prerequisite for fuel loading," Jain said.

Kundankulam plant officials have tested more than 600 pumps and motors, 200 control panels and the same number of electrical panels and individual systems of the reactor. (msn)