The Hindu Business Line : NPCIL gets going on additional nuclear capacity

Power moves
In September 2005, the Centre sanctioned four sites to NPCIL for setting up nuclear stations. Two new ones at Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu and Jaitapur in Maharashtra and two existing ones at Kakrapar in Gujarat and Rawatbhata in Rajasthan for expansion of capacity.

New Delhi , July 15

State-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), the nodal agency for harnessing nuclear power in the country, is working on setting up additional nuclear generation capacity of between 6,000 and 10,000 MWe (mega watts electrical) on the four new sites sanctioned by the Government.

According to Government officials, pre-project activities, including land acquisition at the sites, are in progress and relevant papers had been submitted by NPCIL to regulatory authorities.

Though NPCIL is banking on new uranium mining sites identified in States such as Meghalaya and Andhra Pradesh to kickstart the additional capacity building at these four new sites, it has cited the essentiality of uranium imports for sustaining the country's nuclear power generation programme in the medium to long run.

The Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, which is going through the vetting process in the US Congress, is expected to end nearly 40 years of nuclear isolation of the country and pave the way for flow of civilian nuclear reactor technology and fuel supplies from the US and other countries.

The quantity of uranium available from already known reserves in the country is just sufficient to operate a generation capacity of about 10,000 MW using the pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR) technology. The identification of the new uranium mining sites is estimated to double the availability of uranium in the country over the next five years, according to NPCIL estimates.

Four sites sanctioned

In September 2005, the Centre had sanctioned four sites to NPCIL for setting up nuclear stations — two new ones at Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu and Jaitapur in Maharashtra and two existing ones at Kakrapar in Gujarat and Rawatbhata in Rajasthan for expansion of capacity. According to initial estimates, the Kakrapar and the Rawatbhata projects will have two PHWR reactors of 700 MWe each, while the Koodankulam and the Jaitapur projects will have two light water reactors of 1000 MWe capacity each.

The 700 MWe PHWR units would be of a new design developed by NPCIL and would mark a major step forward in terms of efficiency parameters.

The new 700 MWe sets are expected to reduce the per-unit cost of power, in comparison to the highest PHWR unit size of 540 MWe operational in the country at present.

Imports, economic option

According to Government officials, in light of the limited quantity of uranium available within the country, import of uranium in bulk from other countries for whole 40-year life of reactors is a more economic option. The issue of storage of imported fuel, they said, was not a constraining factor as a 1000 MWe reactor needed approximately 10,000 tonnes of uranium for 40 years of operation, which could even be stored in just two large halls.

NPCIL is currently operating 15 nuclear power units across the country, totalling an installed capacity of 3,360 MWe.