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India to continue with plans for 10 000 MW Nuclear reactor
- 12 years ago (2011-07-23)
- Junior Isles
India’s lone nuclear power generation utility, Nuclear Power Corporation (NPCIL), is to go ahead with its plans for agressive capacity expansion, despite the renewed safety concerns for nuclear power generation after the Fukushima disaster.
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NPCIL is currently in talks with a consortium of 12 European banks, including BNP Paribas SA, HSBC Holdings Plc and Societe Generale, to raise as much as €4 billion ($5.7 billion) to finance its proposed 10 000 MW nuclear power plant at Jaitapur in Maharashtra.
Reactors for this plant — the largest in the world — will be supplied by the French nuclear power equipment manufacturer Areva, according to a senior NPCIL official.
“The challenge of large-scale nuclear power capacity addition in a rapid manner has, indeed, provided an opportunity for further enhancing the country’s capability in adopting and implementing diverse technologies,” said NPCIL chairman and managing director SK Jain.
The state-owned generator plans to complete six reactors, each with 1650 MW capacity, at Jaitapur. The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) recently issued environmental clearance for the project after initial uncertainty was resolved.
Some environmentalists had raised concerns about the possible environmental impact of putting up such a large nuclear power plant at a site that falls in a seismically sensitive zone. Further concerns were also raised about the safety of the European Pressurised Reactors to be supplied by Areva, given that the technology is yet to be thoroughly tested.
“We have funding commitment of more than what we require,” NPCIL finance director Jagdeep Ghai said, “There is absolutely no problem with bankers, although they have also increased their due diligence after the Fukushima event.”
India’s plans to increase nuclear power generation 13-fold is back on track following the safety review, commissioned after the Fukushima disaster.
The department of atomic energy (DAE), which is directly concerned with India's nuclear power generation programme, has maintained that the Japan crisis should not be cause for concern or panic. If anything, it should trigger further safety enhancements.
The installed capacity in nuclear power generation is about 4800 MW, the bulk of which is based on small reactors of 220 MW. But following the Indo-US civil nuclear deal in 2008, India has sketched out ambitious capacity increases in nuclear power generation using large-sized reactors to bridge its growing electricity shortfalls. India hopes to increase its nuclear generation capacity to 63 000 MW by 2032.
The NPCIL development comes close on the heels of a huge uranium deposit find in Andhra Pradesh. The Tumalappalli mine, experts claim, could turn out to be among the biggest reserves of the mineral in the world. The Andhra mine has a confirmed 49 000 tonne of ore and there are indications that it could hold reserves totalling three times its current size.