The India Nuclear Insurance Pool, launched earlier this week by General Insurance Corporation of India and 11 other non-life insurers, will help in going ahead with the development of the long-pending Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Pariyojana (GHAVP) nuclear power plant in Haryana, Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Atomic Energy, said on Saturday.

“The GHAVP was supposed to be a pressurised heavy water reactor sanctioned by the previous Government. But it has met with several delays as tenders were not getting mature due to a lack of an insurance pool. But with the launch of the India Nuclear Insurance Pool, we are confident that the project will now finally move ahead,” said Singh.

“The GHAVP project will finally bring the participation of the northern states into the atomic energy mission of this country and will also help us achieve the target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of increasing our nuclear energy capability three-fold in the next five years,” he added.

Singh, who is also the Minister of State for Development of the Northern Eastern Region (I/C), Prime Minister’s Office, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions and in charge of the Department of Space, was addressing a press conference on the achievements of the Department of Atomic Energy in the last year.

On Friday, GIC announced the setting up of the India Nuclear Insurance Pool with other Indian private and public sector non-life insurers. The pool also has a Rs 600-crore contribution from Nuclear Risk Insurers of London.

R K Sinha, Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, said despite the foreign contribution in the fund, there will be no foreign inspector inspecting the plants.

On the Jaitapur nuclear project, Sinha said the Government hopes to start the project soon but there is work still to be done. “First of all, technically and commercially the project has to be viable. As regards the technical issues, a pre-engineering agreement has been signed between Areva and NPCIL. Areva will provide a document for the plant according to our requirements. The second step would be to determine the commercial viability and ensure that the power generated from the plant is actually sold,” he added.

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