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Our Bureau

Chennai, Sept. 6 The 17 nuclear power plants now in operation across the country with an aggregate capacity of 4,120 MWe account for just 2.83 per cent of the total installed generation capacity of 145,588 MW at the end of July 2008.

The capacity addition programme drawn up for the 11th Plan period too envisages only a marginal role for nuclear power; 3,380 MWe of a total of 78,530 MW, or a little over 4 per cent of the planned addition.

At the end of the 11th Plan period, if the capacity addition programme goes on schedule, nuclear power at 7,280 MWe will contribute just 3.5 per cent of the total installed capacity of 204,756 MW.

Information on the Nuclear Power Corporation’s Web site shows that three nuclear power plants are under construction – the fourth unit at Kaiga of 220 MWe; two units of 1,000 MWe each at Koodankulam and units five and six of 220 MWe each at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Plant.

The first nuclear power plant of 160 MWe went into commercial operation at Tarapur in Maharashtra in October 1969 and the last one to be commissioned was the third unit at Kaiga in Karnataka in May 2007.

According to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the tariffs for the nuclear power plants range from 93.56 paise a kWh in the case of the two units at Tarapur to 279.50 paise a unit for the two units at Kaiga.

The Nuclear Power Corporation envisaged an installed capacity of 20,000 MWe by 2020. According to the corporation, India’s uranium resources can support a first stage programme of about 10,000 MWe based on pressurised heavy water reactors using natural uranium as fuel and heavy water as coolant.

However, the contribution of nuclear power to the country’s overall power situation is expected to increase now that fuel supply will be assured. India faces a huge shortage of both power and energy – in July 2008, according to information available on the CEA’s Web site, the peak demand showed a deficit of 15.7 per cent while the energy requirement fell short by 11.4 per cent.

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