Indian supply chain benefits from nuclear boost

Orders for a wave of new reactors to be constructed in India will give a boost to the efficiency of the country's nuclear supply chain, Atomic Energy Minister Jitendra Singh said yesterday. Ten indigenously designed pressurised heavy water reactors were recently approved, while construction has already started on two VVERs with Russian cooperation.

In answer to a written question to the Lok Sabah, India's lower house, Singh confirmed that the 500 MWe prototype fast breeder reactor at Kalpakkam would start up this year. He also noted continuing construction of four 700 MWe PHWRs, two at Kakrapar in Gujurat and two at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan.

A further ten 700 MWe PHWRs were recently "accorded administrative approval and financial sanction", noted Singh. They will be units 5 and 6 of the Kaiga nuclear power plant in Karnataka state; units 3 and 4 of the Gorakhpur plant in Haryana state; units 1 and 2 of the new Chutka plant in Madhya Pradesh; and unit 1 to 4 at the new Mahi Banswara plant in Rajasthan. They are scheduled to be progressively completed by 2031.

Together with two 1000 MWe VVERs at Kudankulam which in May started construction in cooperation with Russia, this new wave of nuclear construction would "result in manufacturing orders in a big scale to the domestic industry, which will help create efficiency in their operation," said Singh.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News