India’s first set of indigenous 700 MW Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors, would be a reality in the next six years, as the excavation work at Kakrapar in Gujarat has already begun, S K Jain, Chairman and Managing Director of NPCIL said.

The Centre had last October given a financial sanction of Rs 24,000 crore for four units of 700 MW of PHWRs, two each at Kakrapar and Rawatbhata in Rajashtan, he said.

“We will begin the first ‘pour of concrete’ next month in Kakrapar and in Rajasthan power project site for reactor raft and wish to finish the construction of the plants within five years from that day,” Jain said at the 22nd annual Heavy Water Day here yesterday.

“Since the Centre has given financial sanction for these four, we will be completing the procurement order of all components by September this year,” he said.

India is planning a major expansion of its nuclear power-generating capacity, which is currently 4,700 MW from 18 reactors, to meet rapidly increasing energy demands. During this period, India plans to add eight to 10 pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs) of 700 MW each fuelled by natural uranium, several fast-breeder reactors (FBRs) fueled by plutonium-based fuel, as well as an advanced heavy-water reactor (AHWR) based on thorium fuel. All of these reactors would be indigenously designed.

In addition, the country will develop light-water reactors (LWRs), each with a capacity of 1,000 to 1,650 MW, in technical collaboration with foreign vendors. The LWRs will be set up in nuclear parks on the coastal regions of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. Stable underground geological sites are being identified for long-term storage of nuclear waste.

Although the country is pursuing an ambitious target of 60,000 MW of installed nuclear power generation capacity by 2035, its established reserves of uranium can accommodate an expansion of up to only 10,000 MW. According to Jagdeep Ghai, the finance director of state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) (Mumbai), India’s requirement for uranium would increase 10-fold by 2020 amounting to 8,000 tons per year.