NEW DELHI: India plans to add 5,300 MW nuclear power capacity during the 12th Plan period, taking the total contribution of atomic power to 9980 MW to the country’s energy basket.
This planned capacity addition includes power from two 1,000 MW units at Kudankulam being built by the Nuclear Power Corporation with Russian collaboration.
“The proposed capacity addition target during the XIIth Plan is envisaged as 5300 MW,” the budget documents of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) state under the head ‘Deliverables of XII Plan’.
The capacity addition is planned through two 1000 MW units at Kudankulkam, one 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam, two 700 MW indigenously-developed Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) each at Kakrapar and Rawat Bhata respectively.
While the two units at Kudankulam are expected to be commissioned by August this year, the ambitious sodium-cooled PFBR is expected to start generating power by 2015-16.
The four PHWRs under construction at Kakrapar in Gujarat and Rawat Bhata in Rajasthan are upgraded versions of 540 MW reactors operational at Tarapur in Maharashtra.
“These reactors are designed with partial boiling concept. This large unit size offers economy of scale,” the budget documents state.
These four reactors are expected to be completed by 2016-17, thus adding a capacity of 2800 MW.
The 500 MW PFBR is first of its kind reactor involving several complex technologies and is the forerunner of the indigenous Fast Breeder Reactors of the second stage of India’s three-state nuclear programme.