India has signalled its plans for a massive expansion of home-grown nuclear power over the next decade by starting the construction of a 700MW reactor at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station here.
A carbon-steel pipeline the shape of an elephant trunk began squirting dark-grey concrete into a deep excavation to build the foundation of the first of twin reactors, the seventh and eighth at this 38-year-old nuclear power park near the Chambal river.
Top atomic energy officials said the twin reactors would be among a series of ten 700MW reactors that the public-sector Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) hopes to build over the next decade at its existing nuclear stations as well as at planned greenfield sites in Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.
"Our last record for completing the construction of a reactor was four years and 10 months. We'd like to try and break that record here," said Srikumar Banerjee, the chairperson of the atomic energy commission, after flicking a switch to pour concrete into the pit.
The twin 700MW indigenous pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR) at RAPS will cost about Rs 12,000 crore. Construction for another pair of twin 700MW PHWRs began last year at the Kakrapar atomic power station in Gujarat.
"We're sending out a message here — we're right on course," said Shreyans Jain, managing director of the NPC. He said the NPC plans to build four similar reactors at Fatehpur in Haryana and two reactors at Chutka in Madhya Pradesh.
The Indian nuclear establishment had initiated safety reviews after the Fukushima nuclear power disaster in Japan earlier this year, but believes that its nuclear plants are inherently safer because they are programmed to survive a total loss of power — station blackout — which the Japanese reactors could not.
The Fukushima incident has stirred slowdown in nuclear expansion plans elsewhere — and Germany has announced a gradual phase-out of nuclear power.
"But we see such trends only in countries where there is hardly any growth in energy demand," said Banerjee. "India will need to maintain 9 or 10 per cent energy growth to maintain economic growth of 8 per cent," he said.
The long-term future lies in nuclear and solar energy, Banerjee said.
Indian nuclear officials believe India can take advantage of the temporary slowdown in nuclear expansion caused by the Fukushima incident. "We have (nuclear reactor component) suppliers now that are offering better terms," Jain said.
India now has 20 operating reactors and an installed capacity of 4,780MW, and seven reactors, including two 1,000MW Russian reactors, are under construction. India's department of atomic energy has said it wants to raise the installed capacity to 20,000MW by 2020.
That goal — now only nine years away — will require a speed of construction not achieved by India's nuclear power programme before. "But we can do it through a combination of domestic and imported reactors," Jain said.
The NPC is hoping to sign a final agreement with the French supplier Areva for two 1,650MW reactors in Jaitapur, Maharashtra, and both are expected to be ready before 2020.
Haripur proposal
The NPC will approach Bengal to renew the proposal for a nuclear power station in Haripur, but will not build any plant without the consent and confidence of local people, a top official said.
The NPC had identified Haripur, a coastal site in Bengal, as a possible location for a nuclear station on India's east coast and had initiated talks with the previous government, but was asked to wait until the elections this year.
"We're going to approach the new government, and we'll explain our proposal to the government and to the people," Jain said. "We want to make the local people stakeholders and we'll take this forward only if the local people agree."
The NPC believes that Haripur is an attractive site for a station with imported Russian reactors similar to the two 1,000MW reactors that have been constructed at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu. "It's the same design and technology — and we think it can be done quickly in Haripur, but we need consent and confidence of the local people," Jain said.
The NPC has a policy of sharing 50 per cent of the installed nuclear capacity with the state for its exclusive use. If the proposal is accepted, Bengal would get 1,000MW exclusively for its use.
Senior NPC officials said the Rawatbhata site in Rajasthan provided an example of how a nuclear power station can transform lives of local communities. The RAPS has helped build a hospital, a science wing for a girls high school, and helped deliver piped water and electricity to a village close to the station, said Chander Prakash Jhamb, site executive director at RAPS.
"We're also picking 15 children from socio-economically weaker sections for our atomic energy central school each year, and providing girls Rs 400 per month and boys Rs 300 per month, along with school uniform and books," Jhamb said.
Jain said the NPC had earmarked about 2 per cent of its profits each year for corporate social responsibility and this amount will be available to improve the infrastructure and facilities for local communities near multiple nuclear stations.
