there are 2-3 technical reasons for why no N plants have come up in North East states. I'll list them:
1. Seismic Zoning
Almost all of 7 states in NE India lie under what is categorized as Zone 5 of Seismic activity map. This is essentially due to vicinity of Himalayan range which is seismically very active and has a large probability of earth quakes.
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Now technically speaking any N plant (reactor in specific) is designed to withstand ground accelerations of upto 0.3g (lower if geography permits). This translates to earthquakes as high as 9.5 on Richter scale, but the cost goes up as you design higher ground acceleration tolerance in structures and supports. ASME Sec III (the basis of design code for Nuclear Pressure vessel), sections NB, NC and ND all ask for loading of seismic component while calculating stress under all conditions.
Simply put, higher are the chances of earth quake in a region, higher will be the cost of setting up a N reactor. This will make an N plant take longer to break even.
2. Availability of Coal in Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal
The states of West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkand have some of the largest coal reserves anywhere.
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The mining industry is quite developed and this makes them an attractive location for setting up of Thermal power plants owing to little transportation cost.
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AT present day's cost of setting up an N plant vis a vis a Thermal power plant, considering same capacity, the cost of Nuclear power plant and a thermal power plant becomes same if a Thermal power plant is situated at a distance of 800 kms from Coal source or mine. At a greater distance, N power becomes cheaper. (i'm not counting carbon emission cost and carbon credits earned by NPPs).
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As a result, in eastern parts of India, primarily it is the coal that is used for power generation.
Here is an interesting
study by IIT Kanpur.
3. Water Availability
NPPs require colossal mount of water for cooling needs and this means that even though modern cooling towers are efficient source of discharging low enthalpy heat rejected in condensers, it is far cheaper to have a sea nearby especially if the plant capacity more than 600 MWe.
With only few rivers in NE India, large capacity plants are a little difficult to site.
4.
Ample Hydel Power Potential
The entire NE region and Bhutan have a huge potential for Hydel power generation, which is almost free of cost once constructed. As a result a number of projects are coming up in the region.
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In fact National grid is concentrating on laying high capacity HVDC lines from Eastern to Northern grid to allow transfer of power.
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There are plans to set up one N park in state of West Bengal at Haripur (6x1000 Mwe Light Water Reactors with technical support of Russia) but Mamata Banarjee is a strong opposition for the project. It therefore looks very difficult how under such a condition a lant can be setup when state CM is against the project.
All this said, i firmly believe that NE states (or for that matter any other region) should have access to clean and cheap electricity that will ultimately power development and improve quality of life. People in NE states must get opportunity to work in industries in their home states and progressively reduce reliance on tourism as major revenue earner.