India’s installed nuclear power capacity is expected to rise from the current 6,780MW to 22,480MW by 2031, the department of atomic energy told Parliament on Wednesday.
This expansion is expected to come through the addition of nine nuclear power reactors with a cumulative capacity of 6,700MW by 2025, and 12 more reactors with a cumulative capacity of 9,000MW by 2031, the department of atomic energy (DAE) said.
The nine reactors expected to become operational by 2024 are under various phases of construction in different states. One of the nine is a 500MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor — a next-generation reactor — being built in Kalpakkam near Chennai.
The 12 additional nuclear reactors were “accorded administrative approval and financial sanction by the government in June 2017”, the DAE said.
This planned expansion till 2031 will involve only home-grown reactors and not imported ones, through which India had once hoped to raise its nuclear power capacity to 63,000MW by 2032.
The Telegraph – August 10, 2018.
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