The News Minute| December 30, 2014| 9.30 pm ISTCommercial operation of the first 1,000 MW unit at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) began at 12.01 a.m. on WednesdaySpeaking to IANS, a senior official had said on Tuesday that: "The commercial generation of the first unit is expected to happen from 12.01 a.m. Wednesday. We are happy that commercial generation is happening in 2014 itself."According to him, the unit is running at full capacity of 1,000 MW since Dec 10.India's atomic power plant operator NPCIL is setting up two 1,000 MW Russian reactors at Kudankulam in Tirunelveli district, 650 km from here. The total outlay for the project is over Rs.17,000 crore.The first unit attained criticality, which is the beginning of the fission process, on July 2013. The unit has started power generation and has been connected to the southern grid.With inputs from IANSTweet