Currently, India is operating 22 reactors with a total capacity of 6780 MW in operation
New Delhi:
With the first concreting for the 700 MW nuclear power plant in Karnataka’s Kaiga scheduled for 2023, India will launch motion-construction operations for 10 ‘flagship mode’ nuclear reactors team’ for the next three years.
The First Concreting (FPC) signaled the start of construction of the nuclear power reactors from the pre-project phase, including excavation activities at the project site.
“FPC of Kaiga units 5 & 6 expected in 2023; FPC of Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Praiyonjan units 3 & 4 and Mahi Banswara Rajasthan units 1 to 4 expected in 2024; and of units 1 & 2 of the Chutka Madhya Pradesh Atomic Power Project by 2025,” Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) officials told the parliamentary panel on science and technology.
The Center approved the construction of 10 locally developed pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs) with a capacity of 700 MW each by June 2017. Ten PHWRs will be built at a cost of 1.05 Rs lakh crore.
This is the first time the government has approved the construction of 10 nuclear power reactors in one go with the aim of reducing costs and speeding up construction time.
Bulk procurement is underway for fleet mode projects with orders placed for forgings for steam generators, SS 304L pipes and gratings for end shields, pressure forgings, tank forgings condenser, incoloy-800 tubes for 40 steam generators, reactor heads, DAE officials said. They added that the engineering, procurement and turbine island construction packages were awarded for Gorakhpur units 3 and 4 and Kaiga units 5 and 6.
Under the fleet method, a nuclear power plant is expected to be built within a period of five years from the first concrete pouring.
Currently, India is operating 22 reactors with a total capacity of 6780 MW in operation. A 700 MW reactor at Kakrapar in Gujarat was connected to the grid on 10 January last year, but it has not yet commenced commercial operation.
PHWRs, which use natural uranium as fuel and heavy water as a regulator, have become a mainstay of India’s nuclear power program.
India’s first PHWR pair with a capacity of 220 MW was established at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan in the 1960s with Canadian support. The second reactor had to be built with significant domestic components when Canada withdrew its support following India’s peaceful nuclear tests in 1974.
As many as 14 220 MW PHWRS, each with standard design and improved safety measures have been built by India over the years. Indian engineers have improved the design to increase the generating capacity to 540 MWe, and two such reactors have been commissioned at Tarapur in Maharashtra.
Further optimization to increase capacity to 700 MWe.
