The Hindu : National : A remarkable year for India in the field of nuclear energy: Kakodkar

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A remarkable year for India in the field of nuclear energy: Kakodkar

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), made a pitch in Vienna on Wednesday for the sale of India’s indigenous 220 MWe Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) to developing countries. His offer comes in the wake of India’s 30-year isolation by the Nuclear Suppliers Group coming to an end.

Dr. Kakodkar, addressing the 52nd general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), called 2008 “a remarkable year for India in the field of nuclear energy.” The safeguards agreement reached between India and the IAEA on August 1 and the NSG’s waiver on September 6 had created conditions for India to make a bigger contribution to the growth of international civil nuclear cooperation, he said.

While such cooperation would strengthen the country’s energy security, India was also looking forward to enhancing its assistance to friendly countries.

“India has an ongoing programme on 220 MWe PHWRS, a reactor system that is competitive in terms of capital costs, safety performance and unit energy cost. This system is well suited to the needs of countries with small electricity grids, especially those in the developing world,” Mr. Kakodkar said.

India has by now clocked 285 reactor-years of safe and economic nuclear power generation. A new national record for continuous “power operation” was created when the second nuclear power unit at Kaiga in Karnataka ran uninterrupted for 529 days from August 2006 to January 2008. In addition to 17 operating reactors, six reactors – three indigenous PHWRs of 220 MWe each, one Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor of 500 MWe and two Light Water Reactors (from Russia) of 1,000 MWe each – were in an advanced stage of construction.

“We are also pursuing pre-project activities for four 700 MWe PHWRs and the development of a new uranium mine at Tummalapalle [in Kadapa district in Andhra Pradesh],” he said.

Dr. Kakodkar wanted the IAEA to provide full budgetary support to the activities of the International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles (INPRO), which “would be a most efficient and sustainable use of the Agency’s resources in meeting its objectives according to its statute.”

India is a participant in eight of the 12 collaborative projects under INPRO phase II. These projects, especially in the field of water-cooled reactors, fast reactors, high temperature reactors and thorium utilisation, offered a unique opportunity to the IAEA’s member-states to work jointly to take these technologies forward.

“It is rather ironic that this important technological activity, which is at the core of a holistic solution to global access to nuclear energy in a safe, secure and sustainable manner, is still not a part of regular budget of the Agency,” he said.

India is organising an event on October 3 at the conference, to highlight the role of thorium in electricity generation.

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