NPCIL identifies 4-5 sites for Nuclear Power plants

Hyderabad: Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPC) plans to set up clusters of nuclear power plants in identified ‘Nuclear Parks’ in the country.

At least 4-5 such sites that include Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu and Ratnagiri in Karnataka have been identified to set up 1,000 MW units, according to Mr S.K. Jain, Chairman and Managing Director of NPC.

The potential sites would be along the coastal areas and the power produced from these nuclear plants should be competitive to thermal power in the region. About 10 large reactors of the Light Water Reactor (LWR) are also planned with participation of global players, he told newspersons here last week.

Discussions are on with energy majors such as GE, Westinghouse of the US; Areva of France and Russian majors. “But, our condition for participation would be an assurance of life-time guarantee of fuel supply to the reactors,” Mr Jain said in response to questions.

While the sourcing for the reactor would be from global vendors, efforts are on to ensure that indigenisation in the future nuclear power plants would be up to 80 per cent, so that Indian industry has a major role, the NPC chief said, after he and the Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, Dr Anil Kakodkar, received an indigenously fabricated ‘Grid Plate’, from the Hyderabad-based MTAR Technologies for the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR).

Under an accelerated expansion programme during the current Eleventh Plan, NPC has got the mandate to implement eight units of the Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) of 700 MW rating.