MoU to localise Indian nuclear equipment manufacturing
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The Holtec Heavy Manufacturing Division plant will primarily be intended to fabricate complex and safety-related equipment for nuclear power plants but will also be equipped to meet the "heavy weldment" needs of petroleum, chemical, aerospace and other industries, Holtec said. The plant will operate under Holtec’s corporate nuclear and personnel safety programmes. According to the Office of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Holtec is to invest USD680 million dollars in the project.
Holtec CEO Kris Singh said the "state-of-art plant" would become "a pillar of India’s rise" as a global equipment provider. "It is also a proof of our strong endorsement of [Indian Prime Minister] Modi’s ‘Make in India‘ clarion call," he said. "The plant will help realise our goal to bring the United States and India into a cooperative compact to deploy our walk-away safe SMR-160 reactor technology around the world."
The MoU was signed on 21 November in a ceremony at the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Agency in the presence of Maharashtra's chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, and Minister of Industries Subhash Desai. Fadnavis said the MoU was a "strong testament" of his state's efforts for the 'Make in India' programme of localised manufacturing.
Twenty-two nuclear units currently provide India with 6219 MWe of generating capacity, producing about 3% of the its electricity last year. Seven nuclear units totalling 5400 MWe are under construction. India's cabinet in May last year approved the future construction of ten 700 MWe indigenously designed pressurised heavy water reactors as a fully 'homegrown' initiative with likely manufacturing orders to Indian industry of about INR 700 billion (USD11 billion).
