Post Fukushima: India begins construction on new N-plant

Sagar Kulkarni
Rawatbhata (Rajasthan), Jul 18 (PTI) Moving ahead with
its nuclear programme in the backdrop of the Fukushima
accident, India Monday began construction of its 25th atomic
power plant.
The first pour of concrete for the 700 MW indigenous
Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR), the seventh nuclear
plant at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS), took place
in this bustling Rajasthan township, about 65 km from Kota in
the north-western part of India.
The first pour of concrete ceremony, which signals the
beginning of the construction of a nuclear plant, was attended
by Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Srikumar Banerjee and
Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) CMD
Shreyans Kumar Jain.
Banerjee gave the command to pour the concrete by
pressing the button on the control panel of the concrete
pressure pump. Soon after the M45 grade concrete began pouring
in the foundation of what would be the emergency core cooling
system of the new reactor building.
The concrete is being poured at the rate of 90 cubic
metres per hour and at a controlled temperature of 19 degree
Celsius. To monitor the temperature, ice is being mixed with
the concrete.
The 700 MW PHWR, designed by NPCIL by scaling up its
540 MW PHWRs under operation at Tarapur since 2005, is
expected to be completed in the next five years.
Banerjee said, "The 540 MW PHWR at Tarapur was built
by NPCIL in a record time of four years and ten months. We
will try to beat that record".
RAPS already has six units of PHWRs, five of which are
producing over 1180 MW, the largest from a single site.
Construction for the seventh unit began Monday and
excavation work is currently on for the eighth unit, also a
700 MW PHWR.
The NPCIL currently operates 20 nuclear power plants
across six sites and has an installed capacity of 4780 MW.
The Centre had given a financial sanction of Rs 24,000
crore in October 2009 for building four units of 700 MW of
PHWRs -- two each at Kakrapar and Rawatbhata in Rajashtan.
Two 700 MW PHWRs each are expected to come up at Bargi
in central Indian state Madhya Pradesh and Fatehabad in
Haryana in north India.
The NPCIL is building two 1000 MW VVER type nuclear
power plants at Kudankulam and two 700 MW PHWRs at Kakrapar in
Gujarat. Unit 1 and 2 at Kudankulam are expected to be
operational by August this year and May next year
respectively.
Both the 700 MW units at Kakrapar are expected to
start producing power by 2015 end.
Besides the 20 operating and five under-construction
reactors, the Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam is building a
500 MW prototype fast breeder reactor at Kalpakkam.
With the progressive completion of the Kudankulam
reactors and the four 700 MW PHWRs at Kakrapar and Rawatbhata,
the installed nuclear power capacity of NPCIL is expected to
reach 9580 MW by 2016.
Questions were raised on safety of operating nuclear
power plants after the nuclear accident at Fukushima in Japan
triggered by a tsunami after a nine magnitude earthquake.
The NPCIL conducted a thorough review of all the
nuclear power plants across the country and found them to be
safe. It is also incorporating additional safety measures at
various plant sites following the Fukushima accident in March
this year.