The Hindu Business Line : Fast Breeder Reactors’ crucial component made in India

Hyderabad, Nov. 28 In a significant, indigenous effort by an Indian industry, the Hyderabad-based MTAR Technologies has fabricated a critical component – The Grid Plate – for the Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs).

MTAR Technologies, a maker of precision engineering equipment for the strategic sectors, has made the Grid Plate, which supports and accurately positions the core sub-assemblies in the reactor at a substantially low cost.

Interestingly, the Vikas Engine, which powered the PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle), to put the Chandrayaan-I mission to the moon successfully, has also been developed by the MTAR.

Handing over the Grid Plate to Dr Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, on Friday, Mr P. Ravindra Reddy, Chairman of MTAR, said it has been made at a cost of Rs 30 crore against Rs 47 crore estimated for a prototype.

The Grid Plate is designed and developed by the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam. While MTAR constructed a large workshop, special facilities, OMPLAS Chennai was associated for a specific technology input for manufacturing the grid plate weighting about 80 tonnes.

Speaking at the handing over function at the factory premises, Dr Kakodkar described it as “a magnificent technological achievement”. When the PFBR goes critical in a couple of years, India will be the second country with the capability, he added.

Dr Baldev Raj, Director of IGCAR, said more than 100 industries are involved in the FBR programme. “The fabrication of the Grid Plate and other key components and facilities has taken us closer to the realisation of the programme by 2010,” he added.

In his address, Mr S.K. Jain, Chairman and Managing Director of Nuclear Power Corporation and BHAVINI, said “India has the potential to emerge as a major supply hub for nuclear components”.

Mr Akhil Gupta of Blackstone, the global private equity, which has invested upto Rs 255 crore in MTAR, said, “The future of MTAR is far bigger now after the Indo-US civil nuclear deal has been signed”.

The Andhra Pradesh Minister for major Industries & Sugar, Ms J. Geeta Reddy, said the State has given land for the country’s first Aerospace and Precision Engineering SEZ (Special Economic Zone). “We are ready to give more as the project moves forward. AP already not notified 56 SEZs”, she added.

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