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Anil Sasi

New Delhi, Aug. 31 Even with the prospect of uranium imports on the horizon, the Centre is simultaneously working to step up its domestic uranium mining effort as a hedge against possible spikes in global uranium prices and supply disruption risks in the future.

According to Government sources, State-owned Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL) has been asked to deepen its existing mines and expand processing facilities, besides scheduling faster roll-out of its new mining projects in Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh, as well as in Meghalaya. The move is aimed at augmenting additional uranium resources to the tune of 75,000 tonnes during the Eleventh Plan, officials said.

Augmentation of airborne and ground geophysical capabilities is also being targeted for further detailed survey and exploration for locating concealed uranium deposits, officials said. While the current reserves are estimated to be adequate to meet the requirement of about 10,000 MW Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors for a period of 40 years in the first stage of the nuclear power programme, additional reserves are seen as a contingency to the possibility of foreign supply disruptions as and when uranium imports open up, they said.

According to officials, while uranium mining is on in Jharkhand (where four underground mines, one open-pit mine and two ore-processing plants are functioning and two more underground mines are under construction), work has been kicked off on a large underground mine in Kadappa district of Andhra Pradesh.

Pre-project activities for another project in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh are under way.

Efforts are on to address the protests against uranium mining in Meghalaya, which has the best quality of uranium in the country; it could be a major source of the ore in the future, officials said.

In a bid to break the stalemate, the Atomic Energy Commission Chairman, Dr Anil Kakodkar, had made presentations to the all-party committee on uranium mining in Meghalaya earlier this week and met with the Chief Minister, Mr Donkupar Roy, and groups opposed to mining in the State.

The Cabinet Secretary, Mr K.M. Chandrasekhar, also held talks with dissenting groups — including the Khasi Students Union, Federation of Khasi, Jaintia and Garo People — for an early start of the mining in Meghalaya.

According to estimates, Meghalaya’s uranium can meet up to 16 per cent of the country’s demand. The Centre has also proposed the setting up of a nuclear power plant in Meghalaya in its efforts to quell the opposition to mining in the State.

In a bid to speed up the process, the Government has already cleared a Rs 200-crore outlay for prospecting and exploring potential areas during the Eleventh and Twelfth Plan periods. Besides, another Eleventh Plan project named ‘Augmentation of Airborne and Ground Geophysical Capabilities’ aimed at identifying potential areas in Proterozoic basins for further detailed survey and exploration for locating concealed uranium deposits was also cleared at a project cost of Rs 259 crore.

The total identified reserves of uranium in the country as on date are about 1,07,268 tonnes (U3O8). Jharkhand has estimated reserves of about 47,809 tonnes, Meghalaya 17,233 tonnes and Andhra Pradesh 27,870 tonnes, according to the DAE estimates. One tonne of U3O8 is equivalent to around 0.848 tonnes of uranium metal.

The country’s relatively moderate uranium resources are grouped into two categories based on the geological and economic considerations — reasonably assured resources (RAR) and estimated additional resources (EAR-I). The RAR category is estimated at 77,185 tonnes of U3O8 and EAR-I category is estimated at 23,525 tonnes of U3O8.

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