The Hindu Business Line : ‘Nuclear power will be competitive’

Chennai, Sept. 9 Electricity generated by nuclear power plants will be very competitive compared with thermal power stations located in the same region, according to Dr S.K. Jain, Chairman and Managing Director, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd.

The corporation expects to sell power generated by the two Koodankulam plants “at not more than Rs 2.50 a unit,” Dr Jain said in an interview with Business Line. The tariff of the Koodankulam power underscores his point about nuclear power being very competitive.

Dr Jain said that as a consequence of the ‘NSG waiver’, NPCIL would put up ten light water reactors, using imported uranium. Each of these would be “1,000-plus MW”, the actual capacity would be determined at negotiations with vendors.

This programme will run concurrently with the existing schedule of NPCIL, which is to put up eight Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors of 700 MW capacity each, three Fast Breeder Reactors of 500 MW each and one Advanced Heavy Water Reactor of 300 MW (which is an experimental project.)

All these projects are likely to come up at two or three greenfield sites, apart from Koodankulam and the other identified site at Jaitapur, Maharashtra.

The first (two) of the LWR projects that will be based on imported uranium will come up in 2014-15, he said.

Securing supplies

On the question of securing fuel supplies, Dr Jain noted that there were two approaches and NPCIL would pursue both.

One is to enter into a fuel supply agreement, usually with (and linked to) equipment vendors, under which the other party would provide fuel for the full life of the nuclear plant, including for a ‘strategic reserve’.

The other option is for NPCIL to secure uranium assets abroad by taking stakes in a uranium mining company with the help of the collaborator.

Dr Jain also stressed that NPCIL would like to reprocess the spent fuel.

NPCIL has been in talks with global nuclear majors such as GE, Westinghouse and Areva and has told them of its keenness to secure fuel supply through these arrangements and its desire to reprocess the fuel.

Dr Jain said that consequent to the ‘NSG waiver’, NPCIL would be in a position to export reactors. The public sector nuclear power monopoly has built up expertise in building and running reactors of the size of 230 MW.

Many smaller countries need just this kind of reactors and NPCIL looks forward to exporting to these countries. However, there is a catch.

Just as India expects equipment suppliers to also guarantee lifetime fuel supply, the countries that would buy the reactors from NPCIL would also expect similar arrangement. But India is hardly in a position to supply fuel.

NPCIL could, however, join hands with a fuel supplier to export reactors, Dr Jain said.