Uranium shortage faced by Indian atomic power plants is expected to end by the year 2012-13 with the extension of existing uranium mines and mills and development of new ones, said Mr. Anil Kakodkar the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chairman.
“The availability of uranium is improving now as we have expanded the capacity of a mill at in Jharkhand. The PLF of NPCIL’s power plants is growing up and it will be around 55 percent by FY2010 and 65 percent the next year as uranium availability will be continuously increases,” Kakodkar reports at Kalpakkam, about 45 km from Chennai.
The plant load factor (PLF) of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited’s (NPCIL) power plants had decreased about 50 percent in recent times owing to the shortage of uranium. This company has a capability to generate 4,120MW of atomic power.
The government-owned Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) is now operating the five underground mines in Jharkhand at Jaduguda, Bhatin, Narwapahar, Turamdih and Bagjata; an opencast mine at Bandhurang and two more processing plants at Jaduguda and Turamdih.
These construction activities are on for setting up a mine at Mohuldih in Jharkhand and a mine and mill at Tummalapalli in the Cuddapah district of Andhra Pradesh.
UCIL proposes to construct a mine and mill at Kylleng Pyndengsohiong Mawthabah in the West Khasi Hills district in Meghalaya.
In addition, to it also proposes to construct mines and mills at Lambapur-Peddagattu in the Nalgonda district, Andhra Pradesh, and a mine at Gogi in Karnataka.
Thumalapalli project will be complete by 2013 and exploratory work is on in Meghalaya and Karnataka and also the new mill at Turamdih in Jharkhand will be completed soon.
Two more units of nuclear power plants of 220 MW each in Rajasthan and one unit in Kaiga, Karnataka, are predictable to go on stream soon.
“Generation of power from small plants will be costly so, our immediate focus is to import LWR’s to build the nuclear power capacity at a quick pace.”
LWR’s for power generation would require a large-scale enrichment facility and “the committee didn’t take that decision as uranium availability is low and insufficient and hence decided on pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWR) at the first stage”.
The imported LWR’s will get lifetime fuel supplies from the country of import and if needed, then to set up a uranium enrichment facility,” said Mr. Kakodkar.
He also said that the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, is focused on developing high-temperature reactors for power generation, propulsion and even development of alternative fuel like hydrogen.
Srikumar Banerjee, BARC director and AEC member, had said that, “the High-temperature reactors can split water and produce hydrogen which is expected to become the fuel of the future”.
The current PHWR’s is operated at 300 degree centigrade where as in the case of the fast reactors it would be 500 degrees. “When the reactor temperature increases up to 900 degree the operating efficiency will go up further”.
India’s nuclear establishment is looking at building 700 MW PHWR’s as the government has sanctioned construction of four units and four more units are yet to be planned.
“The availability of uranium is improving now as we have expanded the capacity of a mill at in Jharkhand. The PLF of NPCIL’s power plants is growing up and it will be around 55 percent by FY2010 and 65 percent the next year as uranium availability will be continuously increases,” Kakodkar reports at Kalpakkam, about 45 km from Chennai.
The plant load factor (PLF) of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited’s (NPCIL) power plants had decreased about 50 percent in recent times owing to the shortage of uranium. This company has a capability to generate 4,120MW of atomic power.
The government-owned Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) is now operating the five underground mines in Jharkhand at Jaduguda, Bhatin, Narwapahar, Turamdih and Bagjata; an opencast mine at Bandhurang and two more processing plants at Jaduguda and Turamdih.
These construction activities are on for setting up a mine at Mohuldih in Jharkhand and a mine and mill at Tummalapalli in the Cuddapah district of Andhra Pradesh.
UCIL proposes to construct a mine and mill at Kylleng Pyndengsohiong Mawthabah in the West Khasi Hills district in Meghalaya.
In addition, to it also proposes to construct mines and mills at Lambapur-Peddagattu in the Nalgonda district, Andhra Pradesh, and a mine at Gogi in Karnataka.
Thumalapalli project will be complete by 2013 and exploratory work is on in Meghalaya and Karnataka and also the new mill at Turamdih in Jharkhand will be completed soon.
Two more units of nuclear power plants of 220 MW each in Rajasthan and one unit in Kaiga, Karnataka, are predictable to go on stream soon.
“Generation of power from small plants will be costly so, our immediate focus is to import LWR’s to build the nuclear power capacity at a quick pace.”
LWR’s for power generation would require a large-scale enrichment facility and “the committee didn’t take that decision as uranium availability is low and insufficient and hence decided on pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWR) at the first stage”.
The imported LWR’s will get lifetime fuel supplies from the country of import and if needed, then to set up a uranium enrichment facility,” said Mr. Kakodkar.
He also said that the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, is focused on developing high-temperature reactors for power generation, propulsion and even development of alternative fuel like hydrogen.
Srikumar Banerjee, BARC director and AEC member, had said that, “the High-temperature reactors can split water and produce hydrogen which is expected to become the fuel of the future”.
The current PHWR’s is operated at 300 degree centigrade where as in the case of the fast reactors it would be 500 degrees. “When the reactor temperature increases up to 900 degree the operating efficiency will go up further”.
India’s nuclear establishment is looking at building 700 MW PHWR’s as the government has sanctioned construction of four units and four more units are yet to be planned.
No comments:
Post a Comment