The Department of Atomic Energy plans to set up three more nuclear fuel complexes to meet the requirements arising out of the proposed massive expansion plan to increase the capacity of nuclear power plants to 63,000 MW by 2032, from the current level of 4,780 MW.
Presently, the Department has only one such complex at Hyderabad. It produces fuel bundles and other components for all the 20 reactors in operation in the country.
The first of the three additional plants would come up at Kota in Rajasthan and would be used to supply fuel to the four 700 MW Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors being built at neighbouring Rawatbhata and Kakrapar in Gujarat. The sites for the other two are yet to be finalised.
Disclosing this, Chief Executive Officer of Nuclear Fuel Complex, Hyderabad, R.N. Jayaraj, said the complex at Kota would be ready by 2015-16. It would have a capacity to supply up to 500 tonnes of fuel per year. It would also have a zirconium fabrication facility with a capacity of 65 tonnes per year.
Of the other two new facilities, one would supply fuel to ten 700 MW PHWR reactors being planned in Haryana, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, while the other would be used to meet the fuel requirements of the light water reactors planned to be built with foreign collaboration.
