INDIA To Boost Nuclear Power With 10 NPPs Constructed In ‘Fleet Mode’

INDIA TO BOOST ITS NUCLEAR POWER WITH 10 NPPs .

India has geared up to boost its nuclear power capacity in the upcoming years.  To achieve this goal the government has decided to construct 10 Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) in a fleet mode. The upsurge of nuclear capacity will begin from 2023  and will see construction of 10 Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR).

How Fleet Mode Construction Will Help?

In the fleet mode, the nuclear power plant will be completed within five years from the time of First Pour of Concrete (FPC). Not only this under the fleet mode the production cost and process time will be reduced greatly. Thus, helping the target of making India a nuclear forward country in minimum time and effective costing.

The Centre nodded the construction of ten PHWR Nuclear power plants in 2017 with each PHWR  with capacity of 700 MW and each will cost around Rs 1.05 Lakh crore to built.

The fleet mode also includes bulk purchasing of steam generators, SS 304 lattice tubes and plates for end shields. Also the condensers forgings, pressure forgings , incoloy-800 tubes for 40 steam generators, reactor headers will be brought reports DAE officials.

PHWR Nuclear Power Plant Details

PHWRs use Uranium as fuel with heavy water as moderator and it is India’s main blueprint in the sphere of nuclear power. The First Pour of Concrete (FPC) means the onset of the construction of NPP from the pre-project stages. Along with this, it also includes the process on excavating the site of the NPP at the project site.

Under the mega extension of nuclear power of India, the first NPP which will begin in 2023 is in Karnatka’s Kaiga . The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) said, “The FPC of Kaiga units 5 and 6 is expected in 2023, FPC of Gorakhpur Haryana Unit 3 and 4 and Mahi Banswara Rajasthan Atomic power projects units 1 – 4 is expected in 2024. In 2025, the 1st and 2nd units of Chutka Madhya Pradesh will be complete.”

At present, India has 22 nuclear power plants with the capacity of generating 6780 MW. India first PHWRs had the capacity of 220 MW which was set up in Rawatbhata in Rajasthan. Slowly with due course of time the capacity of NPPs are increased to 540 MW. Now we are aiming for 700MW capacity of one reactor.