The spent nuclear fuel storage.

The Kudankulam nuclear power plant’s spent nuclear fuel storage issue needs to be addressed, according to the Supreme Court.

The SC said that the Kudankulam nuclear power plant has to be “worked out” with a plan, possibly with the help of experts from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB).

Spent nuclear fuel, also called used nuclear fuel, is the fuel that has undergone a reactor campaign and is no longer useful for sustaining the nuclear fission chain reaction in a thermal reactor.
Spent nuclear fuel is highly radioactive and potentially very harmful. Spent fuel is dangerous because it contains a mixture of fission products, some of which can be long-lived radioactive waste, and also plutonium, which is highly toxic.

The scheme for the storage of spent fuel in a nuclear power plant is two-fold:
- One facility is located within the reactor building/service building, generally known as the spent fuel storage pool/bay.
- Another is located away from the reactor, called the Away From Reactor (AFR) Spent Fuel Storage Facility, but within the plant’s premises.

The spent fuel storage pool inside the reactor building has a limited capacity and is used for immediate storage of the spent fuel removed from the reactor during refuelling.
The fuel remains in the pool initially for a few years for it to be cooled sufficiently before it is shifted to the AFR facility.
The AFR Facility is functionally similar to the ‘Spent Fuel Pool’ inside the reactor building, except in terms of capacity.

In 1988, an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) for the construction of a nuclear power plant in India was signed between the two countries; India and the Soviet Union (Russia).
But due to several factors from the political and economic crisis, the project has been put on hold since there was the breakup of the Soviet Union and, moreover, with the objection from the US stating that the agreement signed didn’t meet up with the current terms and conditions of the group of nuclear suppliers.
In 2007, an MOU was signed between India and Russia, and when the Russian president visited India, he had a discussion with the Indian prime minister, and both countries planned to promote the use of nuclear energy to certain heights.
It is the single largest nuclear power station in India.
It is situated in Koodankulam in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu.
It is scheduled to have six VVER-1000 reactors with an installed capacity of 6,000 MW of electricity.
It has been built in collaboration with Atomstroyexport, the Russian state company, and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL).

It is an Indian public sector undertaking based in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
It is wholly owned by the Government of India and is responsible for the generation of electricity from nuclear power.
NPCIL is administered by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).
NPCIL was created in September 1987 under the Companies Act 1956.
NPCIL is responsible for the design, construction, commissioning, and operation of nuclear power reactors.
NPCIL is currently operating 22 commercial nuclear power reactors with an installed capacity of 6780 MW.

Number	Plant	State
1	Tarapur Atomic Power Station.	Maharashtra
2	Kaiga Generating Station	Karnataka
3	Kudankulam	Tamil Nadu
4	Madras Atomic Power Station.	Tamil Nadu
5	Narora Atomic Power Station	Uttar Pradesh
6	Rajasthan Atomic Power Station.	Rajasthan
7	Kakrapar Atomic Power Station	Gujrat

Content Source: The Hindu