India starts building 25th N-plant; more PHWRs in Har, MP

From Sagar Kulkarni
Rawatbhata (Rajasthan), Jul 18 (PTI) Sending a strong
signal on continuance of its nuclear programme despite the
Fukushima accident, India Monday began construction of its
25th atomic power plant and announced to build four more
indigenous 700 MW units than planned earlier.
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 north western state Rajasthan township about
65 km from the city of Kota.
The 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.
The 25th plant coincides with the silver jubilee of
NPCIL next year.
The construction of this plant was scheduled to start
in March but was put off pending safety review in the wake of
the Fukushima nuclear accident, said S A Bhardwaj, Director
(Technical) NPCIL.
"We had to revisit the safety measures and have a
relook at the design in the wake of the Fukushima accident" he
said.
Bhardwaj said after the review, some additional
safety features were incorporated and the 700 MW plant now can
withstand a scenario of a breach in the Gandhisagar dam
situated at a height near Rawatbhata and simultaneous July 26
like rainfall in the region.
"The passive safety measures in the plant take care
of a scenario in which all the plant operators are
incapacitated," he said.
"The new designs we have developed include learnings
from Fukushima," Bhardwaj said.
On the ocassion, Jain announced that NPCIL will build
fourteen 700 MW PHWRs as against the 10 planned earlier. The
NPCIL plans to complete the 700 MW PHWR within five years.
The nuclear operator had built the 540 MW PHWR at
Tarapur in a record time of four years and 10 months.
"We will try to beat that," Banerjee said.
The 700 MW PHWR designed by NPCIL is an upscaled
version of the 540 MW PHWRs under operation at Tarapur since
2005.
RAPS already has six units of PHWRs, five of which
are producing over 1180 MW.
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 are expected to come up at Chutka
near Bargi in Madhya Pradesh and four in Fatehpur in Haryana.
Besides these 10 four additional plants are expected
to be built at different sites in Rajasthan and Haryana.
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.