India: Country’s growth depends on nuclear energy: NPCIL officials

Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has given a categorical assurance to people that the proposed Kovvada nuclear project in Srikakulam district will be safest on the lines of other existing projects in India. On the invitation from NPCIL officials, media personnel from Srikakulam district visited Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) which was constructed three decades ago in Kalpakam of Tamil Nadu

During the tour from June 18th to 20th, the officials have shown the plant, safety measures and welfare activities to improve health and educational standards in and around Kalpakam under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). MAPS Station Director T.J. Koteswaran said that the NPCIL has been spending Rs. 25 crore every year in the country for CSR activities. 

According to the Corporation, India has to depend upon nuclear power for its future needs since thermal, hydel and solar powers cannot meet the growing electricity demands of the country. 

The country’s current installed capacity is 2.11 lakh mega watts and it will require 4.25 lakh mega watts of power by end of 2020. Countries like United States, China and France are still heavily depending on nuclear power since it will be cheaper and eco-friendly compared to thermal power projects. 

Giving a power point presentation Kovvada plant Project Director G.V. Ramaesh and MAPS Operations Superintendent M.Venkatachalam said that future nuclear projects will be safest plants with the adoption of advanced technology. 

They said that new plants such as Kovvada project would spur the economic activity on the lines of Kalpakam which had witnessed rapid development in the last two decades. 

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India: Fuel loading completed at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, critiality processes commenced

Despite being dodged by safety concerns and continuing protests, atomic scientists have completed loading of enriched Uranium fuel in the first of the two 1000 MW Russian-made nuclear power reactors at Kudankulam and kickstarted the process towards attaining criticality.

This has brightened the prospect of early power generation from the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP), which is inching closer to getting commissioned.

While it was Buddha's smile for Pokhran II, here the day chosen was Gandhi Jayanthi. Though the green signal for fuel loading was accorded by the country's nuclear watchdog AERB on August 10, it took time to commence work due to court cases.

After the Madras High Court cleared the decks, the Supreme Court too refused to stay the loading of fuel assemblies.

According to sources in KKNPP, Uranium rods were inserted in all the 163 fuel assemblies and the procedure for criticality was launched on Tuesday.

However, this does not mean immediate power generation as the process involves five stages. This comprises safety and radioactivity tests. While confirming that loading of Uranium-235 was complete in Unit-I of the atomic power plant, sources were silent on whether it was recycled fuel that is being used.

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India: Foundation stone of Haryana's nuclear power plant to be laid in January next

Chandigarh: The foundation stone of a nuclear power plant to be set up in a village in Haryana's Fatehabad district will be laid in January next, Congress MP Ashok Tanwar said on Sunday.

The technical survey for the plant to be set up in Gorakhpur village is in progress, he said.

The MP from Sirsa thanked farmers for giving their land for the nuclear power plant which, he said, will not only be safe but also environment-friendly.

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INDIA: KUDANKULAM NUCLEAR PLANT SET TO GENERATE POWER

Kolkata, Sept. 3 -- Ending the long legal and socio-political battle, the Kudankulam Nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu is all set to start generating power from next month, opening a new vista in the country's nuclear safety regulations.

This was announced here today by well-known nuclear scientist and former Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission as well as the Planning Commission M R Srinivasan while addressing an international seminar on 'Frontiers of Sciences' and later speaking to reporters on the sidelines.

Dr Srinivasan, who is now a member of the AEC, said following a recent Chennai High Court order dismissing a Public Interest Litigation(PIL) filed by the Peoples' Movement Against Nuclear Energy(PMANE), a self-styled Human Rights Organisation, the Kudankulam Plant authority under the guidence of the Nuclear Corporation of India (NPCI) was now gearing itself to start loading the nuclear fuel to generators from as early as next week.

" As a result generation of nuclear power by the plant in all likelihood would start from next month(October)itself," Dr Srinivasan said in support of his observation, adding that initially about 350 mw of power would be generated from its two reactors.

Referring to the safety measures undertaken by the plant authority, costing over Rs 500 crores over the past few years, the AEC member assured the audience that all possible measures had been in place to ensure maximum safety to the plant by all international standards.

The two major nuclear accidents at Chernobyl in Russia in the year 2000 and one at Fukushima plant in Japan last year had opened the eyes of every nuclear scientists in case of accidents and natural disasters.
" These unfortunate incidents forced all reactors in every nuclear plant across the globe to adopt the most stringest safety norms without any compromise at any point to prevent any Chernobyl or Fukushima like disasters in future," he emphasised.

Underscoring the need for more and more countries, particularly India,to opt for nuclear power generation to meet their rising energy demand,Dr Srinivasan claimed that without nuclear power India could no longer have cheap and abundant source of electricity to ensure over seven per cent annual GDP growth.

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India: Powerless power in the age of nuclear renaissance

On July 31, 2012 for the second consecutive day, three of India’s five power grids collapsed, depriving 50% of the world’s second most populated country of electricity. The failure of the northern, eastern and north-eastern grids caused a blackout for 700 million consumers. Around 500 trains were stranded, water treatment plants were shut down and hospitals failed to operate. Airports however kept operating by swiftly switching over to alternative sources of power.

Power blackouts are certainly not new in India. The country even has its own pet term for power outages – “load shedding”, i.e., when the demand for electricity is higher than the available supply, the circuit sheds the load by rationing power for a while. For a country trying to meet its energy needs by wooing the nuclear industry without attending to its own shaky infrastructure, the July 2012 blackout is indeed a slap on the face. However, as is the case with every debacle in India, the government has not wasted much time in turning thick-skinned and commencing a blame game, apparently its favourite sport after cricket.

The three states accused of overdrawing power from the northern grid, namely, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, had been drawing power in excess of their allotted quota well throughout June in order to meet the high power needs for sowing during the low-monsoon paddy season. According to the Economic Timesreport, both the grid operator and the regulator were well-aware of this but did nothing substantial to prevent it. On July 30, 2012 when the northern grid failed the first time, 385 million consumers were deprived of power for 12 hours. Sushil Shinde, the Minister of Power, boasted of how effectively power was restored within six hours. The next day when the northern grid collapsed again, the power ministry permitted the withdrawing of power from the eastern and the north-eastern grids, thereby collapsing the latter two as well. The Central Government in New Delhi accused the State Electricity Boards of responsibility for the crisis without addressing the inaction of the centrally-owned Power Grid Corporation when overdrawals of power were initially detected.

According to the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2012 released last month, notwithstanding the Fukushima incident, one-third of nuclear countries generated their “historic maximum” of nuclear power in 2011, which included India, South Korea, China, Russia and Brazil amongst others. Three-quarters of nuclear plants currently under construction are concentrated only in three countries – China, Russia and India - and these along with South Korea are the only ones in the world where multi-plant construction is going on at present.

India’s self-proclaimed nuclear renaissance foresees itself meeting 25% of its own energy needs through nuclear energy by 2050. This Indian nuclear renaissance certainly has its own problems. However, what must be noted is that even if the Department of Atomic Energy accomplishes the miracle of meeting its own target of electricity production (which it so far has never done), the absence of a regulatory authority or an Automatic Demand Management System in the power grid can still plunge the nation into darkness and literally blackout India’s energy future.

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Nuclear energy growth is a certainty for India

Ratan Kumar Sinha

India’s new atomic energy boss will push for more nuclear power.

Ratan Kumar Sinha is now Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy. He replaces Srikumar Banerjee.

“My priority will be removing irrational fear about radiation from people’s mind as nuclear energy will have a larger role in our growth,” he said.
The next phase in the expansion of India’s nuclear power sector will see the installation of large indigenous and foreign-made nuclear reactors to boost India’s nuclear power generation capacity.

“We have restrictive and conservative rules. I want to have a look at all these rules with new scientific findings,” he said.

He noted that the development of large commercial light water reactors and providing drinking water solution in villages using nuclear technology would be his other priority areas.

Sinha, who would be at the helm of affairs in the nuclear sector for the next three and half years said development of large commercial light water reactor and providing drinking water solution in villages using nuclear technology would be his other priority areas.

Sinha has been actively involved in designing new reactors. He guided research programmes for new advanced reactors and the futuristic Indian high temperature reactor.