New Delhi, Jul 10 (PTI) The Kudankulam atomic power reactor unit-1 was shut down on eight occasions, of which two were for planned refuelling, in the past three years, the government said Wednesday.

In a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha, Jitendra Singh, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, said a major maintenance and overhaul of the turbogenerator of unit-1 was carried out indigenously by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India through Indian contractors.

The unit is now operating as its rated power, he said.

"During the last three years (2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19), the Kudankulam unit-1 was shutdown on eight occasions. Two of these outages were for planned refuelling," Singh said.

The Kudankulam power plant has two operating reactors of 1,000 MW each. Unit 3 and 4 are under construction.

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