India To Double Uranium Production

Indian scientists Monday said that in 2007 uranium production in the country would double. According to the officials of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), only four imported reactors – two at Tarapore in Maharashtra and two in Rajasthan – are actually under inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The country is preparing to set up 12 new reactors for nuclear power in the next two years, so that by 2012 India could get at least 10,000
India’s own mines at Jaduguda (Jharkhand) have 1,000 MTPD (metric tonne per day) processing capacity and India owns only 0.8 percent of the world’s uranium reserve. ‘The plan is to step up power production by next year, starting with eight 700-MW PHWR (pressurised heavy water reactors) rea,’ said S.K. Jain, chairman and MD, NPCIL and BHAVINI (Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Ltd).

India is also looking at setting up one light water reactor and three fast breeder reactors, he said. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India is operating 14 (two boiling water reactors and 12 PHWRs) reactors, with a total capacity of 2,720 MWe and the eight reactors it is building will up its power production by another 5,600 MWe (totalling more than 8,000 MWe).

It also has two test reactors and the first indigenous fast breeder reactor is expected to start production by next year. ‘The sites for four PHWRs has already been found, we are now looking among our basket of sites to find the most suitable, for the other four,’ Jain said. The first four are to be at Rajasthan and at Kakrapara (Gujarat).

India Defence