Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) has said it was in negotiations with aluminium major Nalco and biggest oil retailer, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for setting up a joint venture company for building nuclear power plants in the country.“We are in talks with IOC and Nalco and very soon we will be entering into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with these companies,” NPCIL Chairman and Managing Director S. K. Jain told reporters on the sidelines of India Electricity Summit 2009 here. Nalco is the third company after NTPC and IOC to have evinced keen interest in joining hands with NPCIL for setting up nuclear power plants.Mr. Jain said Indian Oil Corporation and Nalco had indicated that they would like to join hands with NPCIL as a junior partner for investment in the nuclear power sector.
To invest Rs. 1,000 crore
IOC had expressed readiness to invest Rs. 1,000 crore every year in the joint venture, he said. Nuclear Power Corporation and NTPC signed a memorandum of understanding in February to start a joint venture company for setting up nuclear power plants. “As far as NTPC is concerned the vision is very clear — to create one more player in the nuclear sector,” Mr. Jain said. On the role of IOC and Nalco, Mr. Jain said the two public sector units would be investors.The nuclear power producer expects to cross the power generation target of 19 billion units this fiscal as it has started using imported fuel from the France-based company Areva.
Fuel supply
“We have started production at our Rajasthan plant using imported fuel from Areva. The condition of fuel supply is now much better as compared to two-three years ago,” NPCIL Executive Director (Corporate Planning) S. Thakur said.
