Thursday, March 9, 2006
India
8 nuclear reactors under construction: Govt http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1646253,0008.htm
Press Trust of India
New Delhi, March 9, 2006
The Government plans to set up more atomic energy plants with latest safeguards available in the international market. Construction work on eight reactors is in progress, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.
The eight nuclear reactors, when completed, will lead to enhancement of power capacity from the current 3360 MWe to 7280 MWe in the next five years, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan said in a written reply.
He said completion of the reactors will add 760 MWe this financial year, 1660 MWe in the next financial year, 1000 MWe in 2008-09 and 500 MWe in 2010-11.
In addition to the capacity of 7280 MWe in operation or under construction, more nuclear power projects are also planned to progressively increase the nuclear capacity base in the country, Chavan said.
Exploitation of indigenous nuclear resources for production of electricity is based on three-stage nuclear power programme, he said, adding the three stages have fuel cycle linkages and have to be gone through sequentially which requires time.
Chavan said the country's atomic energy programme has been formulated to achieve long-term energy security through use of abundantly available Indian thorium resources.
Imported nuclear fuels are expected to serve as additional resource to help in achieving a faster growth in the share of nuclear energy to meet the national energy needs in the near term, he said.
© HT Media Ltd. 2006.