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According to information available on the website of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), the capacity factor of ten of the 17 units has gone down in 2007-08 (till February) compared to the previous year. In some cases, like Unit-I in Kalpakkam, the fall in the operating capacity has been drastic, coming down to 36 per cent from 72 per cent last year. Unit-1 in Kakrapar has similarly been operating at only 46 per cent of its capacity as compared to 67 per cent last year.
Four of the plants have also shown a marginal increase of 2-5 per cent in their operating capacities.
In 2006-07, these 17 power plants together generated 18,800 million units (MUs) of electricity which has come down to 15,600 MUs this year (till February). NPCIL says at the end of this month, the expected total figure is 17,000 MUs.
Asked about the decline in total power generation, NPCIL pointed out that three of the units, one each at Narora, Kaiga and Rawatbhatta, have not operated for most of the year because of different maintenance related reasons. The plant at Narora underwent a coolant channel replacement and has already been synchronized back into operation earlier this month. The Kaiga unit is shut down since August last year because of generator repair and replacement and is expected to resume operations within a week.
The unit at Rawatbhatta, shut down in July last year for feeder replacement, is expected to restart only by July, a NPCIL official said.
Without mentioning anything about the fuel shortage, the official said the total power generation had been consistent with fuel availability through the year. However, NPCIL had, in an earlier communication to The Indian Express, pointed out that there are five functional uranium mines but just one processing mill working in Jadugudda in Jharkhand. Supplies from this one mill were not sufficient to run all the nuclear plants at their full capacities, it had said, adding that once another processing mill in Jharkhand starts operations shortly, the situation would improve significantly.
Not surprisingly, the two nuclear plants still running at around 90 per cent of their capacities are the units 1 and 2 at Tarapore which had received emergency fuel supplies from Russia last year. Such supplies are not possible for any other Indian reactor till the nuclear deal is operationalised.
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RatingUSA that does not have Uranium and lack of fuel may limit US nuclear power production. For the past 30 years, no new reactors were ordered in USA. No investment was made in new uranium mines nor in building facilities to produce fuel for existing reactors. Instead, the industry lived off commercial and government inventories, which are now nearly gone. Worldwide, uranium production meets only about 65 percent of current reactor requirements. That shortage of uranium and of processing facilities worldwide leaves a gap between the potential increase in demand for nuclear energy and the ability to supply fuel for it. U was sold at $10 per pound but the current price is $85 per pound. US has only small quantity U from western US mines, and gets U mostly from Australia, Canada, Namibia, Kazakhstan and Russia. Probably US wants to steal our Thorium technology by this nuke agreement
Manmohan is projecting nuclear power as the answer to India's future energy needs, but 2008-09 Budget tells an opposite story as the allocation is Rs 1,333 crore less than last year for the DAE that can slowdown nuclear programme. This cut is meant to undermine our long term thorium cycle programme, and could have been done on US instructions. Outlay for operation and maintenance of the thorium plant at Mumbai has been reduced from Rs 15 crore to Rs 13 crore. The Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, which is developing the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, has been given a puny increase of Rs 1 lakh. Once completed, this facility will for the first time attempt commercial production of energy using thorium which is sufficient to power India for the next 2500 years. Bhavini, which is building the PFBR has also suffered a major cut of Rs 306 crore in budgetary support from Rs 926 crore in 2007-08 to Rs 620 crore in 2008-09.
The existing 78,000 tonnes, reserves of uranium in India is enough to support 12,000 MW for half a century and if the plutonium produced by the uranium is used electricity generation could be 400,000 MW. India has the world's highest thorium reserves of 360,000 tonnes. I had designed the Thorium rods that could be converted to Uranium 233. With such Thorium reserve and FBR designs India can fuel nuclear projects for the next 2,500 years. Uranium in Domiasiat, Wahkyn and Tyrnai regions of Meghalaya, Lambapur-Peddagattu in Andhra Pradesh and Bagjata and Banduburang in Jharkhand were discovered and is waiting for mining. BARC plan for 300 MW experimental Advanced Heavy Water Reactor is awaiting approval from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board. We don’t need US help. Something is wrong, the incompetent Kakkodkar given 3 unusual extensions, compromised Menon in Pakistan in position promoted over many, and 2 spies at the top.
This is a very misleading article. The other day, TOI reported, quote "The stagnation in nuclear energy output is evident from the huge inventories of nuclear fuel and heavy water that appear to exist ....". Huge inventories ? Then obviously, the fuel shortage at the plant is not because of the delay in signing a 'dubious' deal with the US as this paper seem to want its readers to believe ! Some courage of jurnalism !
Kalpakkam FBTR of 40 MW started in 1972 achieved 13.4 MWt or one third of rated design by 2000 Yet we embarked on 1250 MWt or 500 MWe PFBR, a scale up of 31 times of design but 93 times achieved results. Scale up is 4 usually.. FBR are also unsafe. N program is Worst Managed in India and consumes 2.4 to 3.5 times more Uranium to produce electricity than others. Contribution of nuke power is minimal and should be discontinued. Due to shortage of Engineers women shift engineers are put in reactors, that can result in genetically damaged children. Incompetent Kakkodkar whose bomb model was a failure and whose Dhruva design was faulty was given three extensions by politicians. CountryElect. BUUranium T.BU/1000 T.Prod. FactorIndia15.6978161Slovenia16.6313533.31Germany158.7333247.62.97Japan 291.5756938.52.4France428.71052740.72.5Canada 92.4166555.53.47S Korea141.2310945.42.84Russia144.3336542.92.7USA787.21891841.62.6World26586461541.132.57
Kalpakkam FBTR of 40 MW started in 1972 could achieve thermal yield of 13.4 MWt or one third of rated design by 2000 Yet we embarked on 1250 MWt or 500 MWe PFBR, a scale up of 31 times of design but 93 times of achieved results. Scale up in reactors is 4 usually. FBR are also unsafe. Indian N program is Worst Managed and consumes 2.4 to 3.5 times more Uranium to produce electricity than others. The contribution of nuke power is very minimal and should be discontinued. Due to shortage of good Engineers women shift engineers in reactors are put that can result in genetically damaged children. Incompetent Kakkodkar whose bomb model was a failure and whose Dhruva design was faulty was given three extensions by politicians. CountryElect. BUUranium T.BU/1000 T.Prod. FactorIndia15.6978161Slovenia16.6313533.31Germany158.7333247.62.97Japan 291.5756938.52.4France428.71052740.72.5Canada 92.4166555.53.47S Korea141.2310945.42.84Russia144.3336542.92.7USA787.21891841.62.6World26586461541.132.57
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