"Made in India" Nuclear Reactors

Echo_419 said:

hardly Modi is a Nationalist hard chance he will sell Indian Interests to the US

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While India is putting up indigenous nuclear plants, their capacity is less than what Russia, France and the US are offering. The problem is that all the suppliers have objected to Sections 17(b) and 46 of the Act which they say run counter to the International Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC).

The CSC requires domestic liability laws to conform to a model text but the Indian law is tougher as it allows legal action against suppliers if an accident is caused by faulty or defective equipment. The U.S. has been candid in stating that the Indian law violates the CSC. Russia, Canada and France have similar reservations but are not public about them.

With Prime Minister Modi setting an ambitious goal of triplingnuclear power over the next decade, an analysis by IndiaSpend reveals that India’s nuclear-power sector is in the best shape it has ever been to deliver that target.

India is on course to double its nuclear power generation capacity to more than 10,000 mega watts (MW) over the next five years (see first table).

Generation of nuclear power in India has doubled over the past five years, as IndiaSpend has earlier reported. The new capacity under construction means nuclear power generation will double again over the next five years.

The first of the new reactors under construction, the brand-new 1,000-MW power plant at Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu, started commercial operations on December 31, 2014, while other projects are in the pipeline.


Source: Lok Sabha

The ongoing surge in nuclear power is a direct payoff of the India-US Civil Nuclear Agreement.

The most publicised aspect of this deal is the four power plants that India hopes to build with foreign collaboration.

Progress has been slow, leading some observers to write off the deal.

The nuclear deal has already delivered clear, tangible gains for India, and will continue to do so in the coming years.

Nuclear power plants account for 3.5% of India’s current electricity generation, and its share in India’s future electricity generation will be less than 10% even if the installed capacity is tripled. However, along with other sources of energy such as hydropower and solar-power, it will play a role in reducing India’s reliance on coal for generating electricity.

While progress on power reactors with foreign collaboration has been slow, India’s indigenous reactor program is going along just fine.

Four of the reactors are under construction: two each at Kakrapar and RAPP (Rajasthan) are indigenously designed 700 mw reactors. Work on another pair is expected to start in mid-2015 in Haryana, and six more are planned at three sites (see table below). These indigenously designed reactors appear set to be the workhorses of Indian nuclear program.


Source: Lok Sabha

India has been able to move ahead with these reactors because, unlike the past, fuel availability is no longer a problem.

Before 2008, India’s nuclear power reactors operated at 50% capacity because India did not produce sufficient uranium to run these reactors at full steam. As a non-signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, India was also locked out of the international nuclear marketplace and could not import fuel.
All this changed after the Indo-US nuclear deal. India has since imported uranium from Kazakhstan, Russia and France and is exploring similar agreements with other suppliers, such as Australia.

With more fuel available, capacity utilisation of nuclear power plants has improved from 50% in 2008-09 to more than 80% now (see table below).

India’s Nuclear Energy Generation (Million Units, Left) And Capacity Factor (%, Right)


Source: Lok Sabha, CEA

Currently, 1,940 MW, about 40% of India’s nuclear power capacity, operates under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards and use imported fuel.

The cost of imported fuel for running these reactors is Rs 330 crore per annum. The low cost of fuel is one of the reasons nuclear power is cheaper than other fuels, such as coal or natural gas.

Compared to power plants using fossil fuels, such as coal or gas, nuclear power has high initial costs. However, fuel cost is a minor expense during the plant’s life, leading to lower lifetime costs for nuclear power compared to either coal or gas.

Nuclear Power Corporation in India (NPCIL) supplies electricity at a lower cost per unit compared to any other energy utility in the public or private sector. Given India’s status as a major importer of petroleum, natural gas and coal, this could be one way of keeping energy costs in check.

Source:- Why India's nuclear power output is surging | Business Standard News

NEW DELHI: With an eye on checking China's growing ambitions in South Asia, India has signed a landmark civil nuclear pact with Sri Lanka - the first such agreement to supply nuclear power reactors to a foreign nation - and decided to expand defence and security cooperation to address Colombo's requirements.

This is the first civil nuclear pact that Sri Lanka has signed with any country. The agreement signed after Modi-Sirisena talks would help bilateral cooperation in the transfer and exchange of knowledge and expertise, sharing of resources, capacity building and training of personnel in peaceful uses of nuclear energy, including use of radioisotopes, nuclear safety, radiation safety and nuclear security, according to the Ministry of External Affairs. India also plans to supply indigenously made light small-scale nuclear reactors to Lanka which wants to establish 600 MW of nuclear capacity by 2030, government officials said. Delhi has been contemplating to export smaller sized nuclear reactors to friendly countries for few years now.

Sirisena began his India visit on Sunday, his first trip abroad since he created history by unseating Rajapaksa in January, which has provided Delhi with an opportunity to repair ties that had become tense under the previous regime. Modi was the first foreign leader to congratulate him and invite him to Delhi. And on Monday he formally announced to visit Colombo next month. The two leaders understandably also discussed empowerment of Tamil minorities in Sri Lanka which is crucial for BJP's polit ..

The nuclear agreement would also facilitate cooperation in radioactive waste management and nuclear and radiological disaster mitigation.

Source:- India to supply nuclear reactors to Sri Lanka - The Economic Times

MUMBAI: Now, India can build cheaper nuclear reactors, than even South Korea. Talking to TOI on the eve of his retirement, Dr Srikumar Banerjee, secretary in the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), said India can now manufacture nuclear reactors at $1,700 per unit. Come May, Banerjee will make way for Ratan Sinha, currently director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), who will take over as secretary, DAE.

"We are now the world's most economical manufacturer of nuclear reactors. Our cost per unit, of $1,700 (for a 700mw reactor) is substantially less than our nearest competitors. The average international cost is now between $2,500 and $3,000 (for a 1,000mw reactor). South Korea demonstrated its ability to build nuclear reactors for less when it wrested a massive reactor deal for the UAE from French giant, Areva, a couple of years ago.

With the protests in Kudankulam piping down, Banerjee said DAE was waiting for a couple of clearances from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) to start Kudankulam-1.

The AERB will have to conduct a robotic inspection of the pressure vessel in the Kudankulam plant. This is done after what they call the "hot run", which is a kind of a rehearsal but without nuclear fuel. "After this, they open the cap of the pressure vessel to do a robotic inspection. Only after clearing this inspection are we allowed to put in nuclear fuel," said Banerjee.

The DAE chief said he was looking at Kudankulam going "critical" by mid-June. "The approach to criticality should happen around that time," he said. "That will be exciting." Six months down the line, Banerjee said the DAE hopes to commission the second Kudankulam plant as well.

Indian companies manufacturing components and systems for nuclear reactors, Banerjee said, can now do the same work for much less cost. For instance, he said, L&T, which supplies many critical components for the Indian nuclear and defence sectors, can make the large reactor vessel in their new Hazira plant. This is something of an achievement because it's traditionally been the preserve of Japanese engineering expertise.

Banerjee was clear that the despite Fukushima, countries like India will have a high demand for nuclear energy. "In the months after Fukushima, we have received expressions of interest from Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to set up nuclear power plants. We will do all of them," asserted a confident DAE chief.

Source:- India can now build cheaper nuclear reactors than almost anyone, outgoing DAE chief says - The Times of India