The
performance of Indian nuclear power plants as well as several fuel
cycle facilities reached their highest levels last year, a top official
said Wednesday.
While the nuclear power plants have registered an 80
percent capacity factor, the pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWR)
fuel production registered an increase of eight percent over the
previous year to 812 MT, the highest ever production of heavy water with
the lowest specific energy consumption.
This was stated by Atomic Energy Commission chairman
R.K. Sinha, who is also secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, at the
ongoing 57th General Conference of International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) in Vienna Wednesday.
Sinha said the average annual availability of Indian nuclear power plants has remained at 90 percent.
“Six of the 19 reactors, currently under operation in
the country, have logged continuous operation of more than 300 days
during the year. The Indian nuclear power sector has registered over 379
reactor years of safe operations,” Sinha said.
He reiterated that the Indian PHWRs offered a highly competitive capital cost per MW and a low unit energy cost.
The performance has been the result of India’s
adopted policy of a closed nuclear fuel cycle in order to extract the
maximum energy from limited uranium resources, to ensure sustainable
nuclear waste management and, most importantly, to achieve sustainable
long-term energy security through utilisation of Thorium, Sinha
explained.
Emphasising India’s commitment to implement the
highest standards for the safety of Indian nuclear power plants, and
associated fuel cycle facilities, Sinha said this country continues to
participate in and assist the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
in its endeavour to enhance nuclear safety through various measures
under the IAEA Action Plan on Nuclear Safety.
“The first IAEA Operational Safety Review Team
(OSART) mission to India for Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) units
3 and 4 took place in end-2012. A follow-up OSART mission is planned
next year. Preparation and planning for inviting IAEA’s Integrated
Regulatory Review Service for peer review of our regulatory system is
also in progress, and India will soon request IAEA to undertake this
mission,” Sinha said.
Giving an overview of the recent developments in the
Indian nuclear sector, Sinha said that the first unit of the Kudankulam
Nuclear Power Plant, built with Russian collaboration, achieved its
first criticality July 13 and would begin commercial operations soon.
The second unit is at an advanced stage of commissioning.
The construction of four indigenously designed 700 MW
PHWRs, two each at the existing sites of Kakrapar, Gujarat and
Rawatbhata, Rajasthan, is progressing as per schedule.
India is planning to construct 16 more 700 MWe capacity PHWRs at five different sites around the country, he added.
The construction of the 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder
Reactor is nearing completion at Kalpakkam where the critical erection
of all permanent in-core components has been completed.
The filling of sodium in the secondary sodium loop is
planned shortly and the PFBR is likely to achieve first criticality in
another one year, Sinha said.
In addition, a co-located Fast Reactor Fuel Cycle
Facility to reprocess and re-fabricate the fuel from PFBR is also being
set up at Kalpakkam for which the necessary site infrastructure has
already been created prior to launching the project.
The Fast Breeder Test Reaction, fuelled with unique
mixed carbide fuel at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, is
performing well with high availability factor, providing valuable
operating experience and technical inputs to India’s fast reactor
programme.
Irradition of indigenously fabricated sodium bonded metallic fuel pins has also been initiated in that reactor, Sinha said.
No comments:
Post a Comment