India is leaving no stone unturned to press ahead with its indigenous nuclear power program, without depending on whether the nuclear deal with the U.S. come through or not. The Indian scientists are putting their best foot forward focusing on pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) as immediate future.

The PHWRs use natural uranium as fuel, and heavy water as coolant and moderator. S.K. Jain, Chairman of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), the nodal agency to design, build, and operate nuclear power reactors in India, in an interview to The Hindu, expressed his satisfaction over the progress of the indigenous PHWR programme that is moving at the right pace, with a vision for future.

The construction of fifth nuclear power reactor at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan is on schedule and expected to be critical by August or September 2007. The Rajasthan-6 and Kaiga-4 PHWRs are to begin by March 2008. The capacity of each of the three reactors will be 220 MWe each.

Mr. Jain also informed that the biggest step forward in India’s indigenous nuclear power programme is to commence with the beginning of work for two PHWRs of 700 MWe each at Kakrapar in Gujarat by the end of 2007.

India has 17 operating reactors at present, with a total installed capacity of 4,120 MWe. Out of these, 15 are PHWRs and two are light water reactors (LWRs) at Tarapur in Maharashtra. However, the real challenge is the supply of nuclear fuel. India lacks natural reserves of uranum and it is curtailing capacity of reactors by 25%.

The excavation of new uranium mines in Jaduguda, Turamdih, Bhatin, and Narwapahar, all in Jharkhand, Thummalapalli in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh and Nongbah Jynrin in Meghalaya have raised hopes. Even a yellow cake-processing unit has been established at Jaduguda to supply fuel to Nuclear Fuel Complex at Hyderabad to be fabricated into the fuel bundles that power the PHWRs. Another mill is coming at Turamdih to process uranium ore found in Bandurung.

However, the environmental clearance and land acquisition are two major problems before the NPCIL. Further, the delay in getting equipments from Russia, the Kudankulam nuclear project is running behind schedule. With the success in building prototype fast breeder reactor, India is hoping to come over uranium shortage by using its vast thorium reserves. Presently, India is getting around 3050MWe from its nuclear reactors. The positive progress in Indo-U.S. nuclear talks holds high hopes for the nuclear sector and power generation is expected to go beyond 10,000MWe in the next three to five years.

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Via: Hindu