The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board on Thursday granted its clearance for ‘first approach to criticality’ for the first unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project.

This is the penultimate clearance from the atomic regulator.

A senior scientist in the Department of Atomic Energy told Business Line on Thursday that the final clearance for the plant operators to start commissioning would come in a few days.

The Unit-1 is the first of the two units, each of a capacity of 1,000 MW, coming up in collaboration with Russia at the Kudankulam town in southern Tamil Nadu. The plant is being put up by the Government-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL).

The clearance for the ‘first approach to criticality’ is the culmination of in-depth review of all safety aspects, commissioning results, corrective measures of the identified non-conformances and submissions regarding fulfilment of various regulatory requirements, according to a press release from AERB.

The reviews have included checks to ensure that quality assurance norms have been followed and the commissioned systems meet the acceptance criteria for safe operation, the release says. It also notes that while granting clearance, all the directives of the Supreme Court’s judgment of May 6 have been fully complied with.

The Supreme Court had directed four entities – NPCIL, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, AERB and the Ministry of Environment and Forests — to oversee the respective aspects of the projects related to their areas of control. With AERB clearing the project, only the MoEF’s go-ahead is still pending.

ramesh.m@thehindu.co.in

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