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India planning major expansion of its nuclear-power capacity | Reports indicate that India is planning a major expansion of its nuclear-power capacity. According to
a report in Nature News, Srikumar Banerjee, head of the India's Atomic Energy
Commission, said that the country is planning to increase nuclear power generation
to 60 gigawatts by about 2035, from the current 4.7 gigawatts produced from 18
reactors. By increasing the nuclear capacity to 60 gigawatts, it would be roughly
10 percent of expected total installed capacity. "India's established reserve
of uranium will allow us to raise our installed capacity only to 10 gigawatts,"
he said. We are intensifying our efforts to search for uranium in the country,
but that takes time. But now that the Nuclear Suppliers Group (the international
group that oversees nuclear exports) has relaxed its guidelines, we can access
international markets," he added. Agreements with the United States, France and
Russia on civilian nuclear cooperation have been signed. "Negotiations between
the Nuclear Power Corporation of India and companies in France and Russia are
under way for finalizing the import of nuclear reactors, and we have already placed
a purchase order for uranium with Kazakhstan," said Banerjee. According to
Banerjee,
"We will add eight to ten 700-megawatt pressurized heavy-water reactors, several
fast-breeder reactors and an advanced heavy-water reactor, all of indigenous
design."
"Concurrently, we will set up light-water reactors in technical cooperation with
foreign vendors. These imported reactors, each with a capacity of 1,000-1,650
megawatts, will be set up on energy parks at coastal sites including Gujarat,
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal," he said. "We are also
in the process of identifying stable underground geological sites for long-term
storage of nuclear waste," he added. India has said it will reprocess imported
nuclear fuel to extract plutonium, which can be used to build weapons. If this
has made it difficult to strike deals with international partners, Banerjee said,
"India has committed to adopting the closed fuel cycle option, in which the plutonium
recovered from spent fuel is utilized for energy production using fast-breeder
reactors." "We have always emphasized that we should have the right to reprocess
imported nuclear fuel to separate plutonium, under the International Atomic Energy
Agency safeguards, of course," he added. As to the question whether India's civilian
nuclear programme is completely separate from its weapons programme, Banerjee
said, "Indian strategic programme is 100 percent indigenous and has no relation
whatsoever to the proposed international civilian nuclear cooperation." |
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