Nuke projects delayed over acquisition of land

Chennai:

Nuclear projects are delayed because of acquiring land for the project and the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill is in the parliament, according to a highly placed Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited source.

Speaking to reporters after a Scientific Neet on Radiation and Cancer, director (technical) NPCIL S A Bhardwaj also rejected the theory that the projects are delayed due to Post Fukushima protests in India and said many states have come forward to offer their sites.

“Government has approved two locations in Madhya Pradesh, one each in Haryana, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal.  Many more sites are, right now, in investigation. Right now, we are looking at Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, where two sites have been offered. And we hope that within this year there will be four units of 700 MW,” he added..

He said the French regulators report post Fukushima has just come, a couple of days back and we are studying the report. Thereafter, we will again have a detailed technical discussion with the French vendors before deciding on the reactor that is offering 1650 MW one unit,” he added.

On the US collaboration, he said, “In the next plan, what we propose is that we will make eight units of 700 MW and eight units of light water reactors, which includes four reactors of United States technology (two each, with two vendors from the US). We are talking to them on technical level.”

Meanwhile, Indian nuclear establishment is taking all precautions before commissioning India’s 500 MW prototype fast breeder reactor whose construction is expected to be over by 2012.

The fast breeder reactor, which breeds more material for a nuclear fission reaction than it consumes, is one of the key projects of India’s three-stage nuclear power programme and India became the sixth country to have such a technology, way back in 1985.

Prabhat Kumar, project director at Bhavini told reporters that the PFBR will undergo tests which include secondary sodium loop and safety grade decay heat removal. The first test of secondary sodium loop will be conducted on September 2012 and the project will be ready by beginning of 2013.

He also said there will not be any cost over runs in the Rs.5,677 crore project  and added some savings to be achieved due to project management planning.

Speaking about project funding, Kumar said the government has been infusing equity and by March this year the total equity will be around Rs 4,200 crore.