India is going ahead with its nuclear power capacity addition programme, unfazed by the nuclear disaster in Japan. Nuclear Power Corporation (NPCIL), the country?s sole nuclear utility, has approached a leading public sector lender for a Rs 16,600 crore loan to finance its projects in Rajasthan and Gujarat, sources said.
In further expansion of its generation capacities at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan and Kakrapar in Gujarat, NPCIL is putting up two 700 mw at each location. The state-owned nuclear utility is expected to spend as much as Rs 23,700 crore to complete these projects. NPCIL is using indigenously built 700 mw pressurised heavy water reactors.
?Though a small part of our energy portfolio, nuclear power is equally important. Every little bit that we generate from nuclear plants helps us save on import of fossil fuels,? Kameswara Rao, leader, energy, utilities and mining practice, PwC, said.
Although NPCIL is outside the central electricity regulatory commission?s (Cerc) jurisdiction, it is still financing these projects in the debt and equity ratio of 70 and 30, the norm set by the regulator, to keep the tariff low. These projects are scheduled for commissioning during 2015 and 2016.
?We have asked Power Finance Corporation for the loan,? an NPCIL official said.
In the light of Japan?s nuclear crisis, India?s nuclear power watchdog, atomic energy regulatory board (AERB), is conducting a comprehensive review of safety guidelines and preparedness of nuclear power plants to undertake mitigation in case of an unlikely situation.
But at the same time, it has also tried to assuage public concerns by saying that all the operating reactors in the country are designed to withstand the impact of earthquake and tsunami.
Moreover, only two units in the Tarapur atomic power station have boiler water reactors similar to Japan?s Fukushima nuclear power plant, which is in crisis after being being hit by the earthquake and tsunami , the regulator pointed out.
The department of atomic energy (DAE) has maintained that the Japan crisis should not be cause of alarm or panic. Instead, it should lead to safety enhancements at nuclear plants.
India has 4,800 mw nuclear power generation capacity in place, the bulk of which is based on small reactors in the size of 220 mw. But following the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, India has chalked out ambitious capacity addition in nuclear power generation using large-sized reactors to bridge its growing electricity shortfalls.
For example, the government has planned five nuclear parks each with 10,000 mw capacity at various locations including Jaitapur in Mahrashtra. These projects will be based on large-sized imported reactors. India plans to increase its nuclear generation capacity to 63,000 mw by 2032.
Meanwhile, International Energy Agency has said in a recent report that India needs to increase its nuclear generation capacity to 120 giga watt by 2050 to meet the growing energy requirement of its economy.