Chennai June 18 (IANS) India s atomic power plant operator Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) on Monday said its first 220 MW unit at Kaiga in Karnataka has set a new record of operating for 766 days continuously.
In a statement NPCIL said the Unit 1 of Kaiga Generating Station (KGS) surpassed the earlier record of 765 days set by Unit 5 of Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) in 2014.
"With this achievement KGS-1 now stands second in the world among Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) and fourth among all nuclear power reactors in terms of continuous operation " it said.
The indigenously-designed reactor has been operating continuously since May 13 2016 powered by domestic fuel. The unit started commercial operation on November 16 2000.
According to NPCIL along with KGS-1 four more reactors RAPS-3 (659 days) KGS-2 (467 days) and MAPS-2 (357 days) are presently operating for long periods.
The NPCIL currently has 22 reactors with a total capacity of 6 780 MW in operation and eight reactors with capacity of 6 200 MW under construction.
Work has also been initiated on twelve more reactors (9 000 MW). They have been accorded administrative approval and financial sanction by the government the statement said.

--IANS vj/him/