Major component milestone for Indian reactor

Manufactured by L&T Heavy Engineering, the manufacturing arm of Larsen & Toubro, at its Hazira facility, the component weighs 107 tonnes and is about 9.3 metres across with a thickness of nearly a metre. "The complex unloading operation was executed flawlessly through meticulous planning and seamless coordination using a 500-tonne crane, 70-tonne crane and 10-tonne chain pulley block," Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd said.

The End Shield is the first major piece of equipment of the reactor core, NPCIL said. It provides structural support to coolant channel assemblies, facilitates on-power refuelling and forms an integral part of the calandria vault enclosure.

_{(Image: NPCIL)}

Kaiga units 5 and 6 are Indian-designed 700 MW pressurised heavy water reactors, ten of which NPCIL is planning to build in "fleet mode". Excavation works for the units began in May 2022. A ceremony to mark the first pouring of concrete - which marks the point at which a project becomes a nuclear power unit under construction - was held earlier this year. The aim is for the first new unit at the Kaiga nuclear power plant to achieve criticality in five years.

Larsen & Toubro has already manufactured and dispatched four of the eight steam generators for the units.