India looking to import uranium from Uzbekistan

[onionkiller]

India looking to import uranium
from Uzbekistan
PTI | Oct 6, 2013, 01.06PM IST
NEW DELHI: India is in talks with
Uzbekistan for procuring uranium for
growing requirement of fuel for its
nuclear plants, expected to increase
in number in coming years.
A delegation of department of
atomic energy (DAE) officials
travelled to Uzbekistan last week to
discuss the modalities of a possible
contract, sources told PTI here.
They said a contract for procurement
of uranium could materialise in the
near future.
India is looking at importing about
2,000 tonnes of uranium by 2014
from Uzbekistan, which has 1,85,800
tonnes of proven uranium deposits.
The visit by the DAE team took place
against the backdrop of talks
between external affairs minister
Salman Khurshid and his Uzbek
counterpart Abdulaziz Kamilov last
month in Tashkent. During the talks,
the issue of uranium import to India
was discussed.
India already has a contract for
uranium import from another Central
Asian nation Kazakhstan and
Mongolia. Apart from these
countries, Kyrgyzstan also has rich
uranium deposits.
DAE officials, however, said that they
were looking for uranium across the
world to meet the growing demand
for the country's nuclear power
plants.
"It is not that we are focusing on
Central Asia only, but the region
happens to have proven reserves of
uranium. We will try to procure
uranium from wherever possible,"
said a senior DAE official.
"We are also looking at Niger and
Namibia to get our supply of
uranium," the official added.
Both these countries have rich
deposits of uranium. In 2009, India
also signed a civil nuclear
cooperation with Namibia.
India currently has 19 active nuclear
reactors that produce 4,780 MW of
electricity.
In the 12th Five Year Plan
(2012-2017), Nuclear Power
Corporation India Ltd (NPCIL) plans
to add 16 more reactors and increase
power generation to 16,000 MW and
further take it up to 20,000 MW by
2022.
In his speech at the 57th General
Conference of the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in
Vienna last month, DAE secretary
Ratan Kumar Sinha said India had
"limited resources" from which it is
trying to "extract maximum energy".
Sinha had said with the finding of
new reserves of uranium, the total
reserves capacity had shot up by five
per cent. He was referring to the
Tummalapalle mines in YSR district
in Andhra Pradesh.
Apart from Andhra Pradesh, other
active uranium mines are in
Jaduguda in Jharkhand. These
reserves, however, are not enough to
meet the increasing fuel demand.
India has already signed a civil
nuclear agreement with Mongolia in
2010 while it has a similar
agreement in place with Kazakhstan
to procures uranium. Kazakhstan has
15 per cent of uranium reserves of
the world.
India currently gets uranium from
Russia, France and Kazakhstan.
After the Indo-US nuclear deal in
2009, the 45-member Nuclear
Suppliers Group (NSG) has been
open to sell uranium to India.
Countries like Canada and Australia,
which were earlier stern over the
issue, have expressed willingness to
export uranium to India, albeit
under the IAEA safeguards.

source. timesofindia.com

 

[Tshering22]

Excellent move.

Energy availability and power generation are key factors to a successful industrial foundation of a country. Since we are a country of 120 crore people, it becomes even more important for us to ensure that we generate massive amounts of power to keep our industrial complex chugging smoothly.

Not only that, but also we have enough power for the comfort of our people involved in hard work. Most of India has moist, hot and humid conditions barring the southwestern belt and north and northeastern belts. There are lakhs of people who work and come home tired to sleep in the cool. At that time if there is no power, it is very frustrating and de-motivates the workforce.

We must engage in serious nuclear trade with all the CAR countries.