The Hindu Business Line : Centre plans 5 coastal nuclear power stations

Nuclear plans
Site-selection panel has visited a number of coastal areas and is likely to zero in on sites in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal.
Centre to decide on site after panel submits report December-end.
The projects are expected to use light water reactors and are most likely to be run using imported fuel.

New Delhi , Nov. 26

Buoyed by the steady progress on the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, the Centre is firming up plans to set up around five new coastal nuclear power stations using high-end reactors of 1,000 MWe and above.

The stations would be designed to accommodate up to six to eight such reactors so that the overall capacity of each station can be gradually ramped up to almost 8,000 MWe, Government officials involved in the exercise said.

Site selection

A 12-member Site-Selection Committee under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), which recommends locations for setting up nuclear plants to the Centre, has visited a number of coastal areas in the country and is likely to zero in on sites in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal.

The Centre will take a final call on these sites after the committee submits its report by December-end, officials said.

Importing of reactors

In all, the state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) would take up a total of four-five coastal nuclear stations based on the committee's final recommendations.

The projects are expected to use light water reactors and are most likely to be run using imported fuel, because of which the coastal sites are being selected, officials said.

With the possibility of transfer of technology from the US appearing brighter given the progress on the Indo-US deal, importing reactors larger than the 700 MWe ones developed by NPCIL is being planned for these new projects, officials said.

Site suitability

All the new `probable' sites are being examined in terms of their suitability for setting up large nuclear stations and technical data including soil test, availability of water, flood data, and geomorphological data is being collated for each one of them.

NPCIL, the sole utility implementing nuclear power projects in the country, has a total of 16 operational plants with a capacity to generate around 3,900 MW.

Six more plants with a combined capacity of 3,000 MW are in an advanced stage of construction, the first of which is expected to be operational by March next year.

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