Amendment of Atomic Energy Act to permit joint ventures for nuclear power on anvil -- Chaturvedi
D N MOORTY

TARAPUR, FEB 11: Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, Chief Scientific Advisor to the Government of India on Saturday set the ball rolling for taking India into the forefront of nuclear power producing nations by calling for doubling of the targets set for the year 2020, from the present projection of 20,000 Mwe to 40,000 Mwe.

Kalam was addressing a packed audience of the workers, nuclear engineers and scientists of not only the Tarapur plants, but also invitees drawn from the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPC) and the various units f the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) in the presence of their respective chiefs, Dr Vijay Kumar Chaturvedi and Dr Anil Kakodkar, who is also chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) on the occasion of the celebrations of ``Thirty Years of Commercial Operation of Tarapur Units 1 and 2.

Dr Kalam's call virtually endorsed the DAE-NPC strategy for achieving the projected targets and provided added impetus to the nuclear power programme.Kalam's thesis went along the vision he has been projecting in recent times. A steep rise in the per capita consumption of electricity is key to the transition of India from a developing country to a developed country within 20 years. This thesis was also propounded by the late DAE secretary R Chidambaram, who was conspicuous by his absence, especially when banners greeting Chidambaram fluttered along with those greeting Kalam and Kakodkar.

Dr Chaturvedi explained the strategy to achieve the targets. 4000 to 4,320 Mwe of power is sought to be produced via the pressurised heavy water reactor route (PHWR), a technology that India is now completely comfortable with and has completely indeginised. Another 8,000 Mwe is sought to be produced as a stop gap additional mobilisation via the pressurised water reactor route (PWR) in collaboration with Russia by setting up at least 8 units of 1000 Mwe capacity at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu. Around 2,700 Mwe already exists and the rest of the power is expected to be obtained via the fast breeder reactor (FBR) route, currently coming up at Kalpakkam at the outskirts of Chennai.

At Rs 5 crore per Mwe, the NPC would need Rs 100,000 crore to fulfill its stated target, and now with Kalam's call, the NPC is looking at an investment figure of Rs 200,000 crore to be invested within a span of 20 years. So where is the money going to come from?

Chaturvedi explained that by the year 2000 the country would need around 2,15,000 Mwe and the country has to find money to produce that much energy from whatever source, whether hydel, thermal, alternative or nuclear. The question was how much would national policy would grant the nuclear component of that share. The NPC chief also said that by the year 2007, once the NPC produces power to the tune of 7 to 8 thousand Mwe, the NPC would be in a position to add 1000 Mwe every year from its own funds.

Speaking exclusively to the The Indian Express, Chaturvedi revealed that Dr Kakodkar, in priniciple agreed that this could be possible only if joint ventures are undertaken and public equity tapped. To this end, the DAE is now forwarding proposals to the government to amend the Atomic Energy Actto make this possible.

Dr Chaturvedi also revealed that there is a new zeal and interest in nuclear power displayed by the state electricity boards being fed in particular by the northern grid. Chaturvedi said that talks are already underway with the Punjab and the Haryana SEBs to work out the equity in investment for installing a series of 220 Mwe PHWRs feeding nuclear power to the northern grid.

Chaturvedi said by 2011, the debt equity ratio would rise to 7:3 from the current 2:1. Such measures would make it possible to add 2000 Mwe instead of the current target of 1000 Mwe, since the PHWRs were now totally indegenised and the private sector is geared to produce the turbines and callandrias to the capacity of even 1000 Mwe. There is no difficulty insofar as technology and infratructure went, the only problem was to solve the nitty gritty of investment needs and for the present, at leat till 2010, there is no alternative except for the government to come up with seed investment funds.

It is in this context, Dr Kalam's call to double DAE-NPC power targets has set hearts racing in the nuclear power sector. Keeping in mind, his close relations with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the nuclear establishment led by Dr Anil Kakodkar now hopes to convince the government of the economic viability of nuclear power set at just Rs 5 per unit even in the next decade from the present around Rs 3 per unit -- particularly in the wake of the Enron imbroglio, whose power in effect now costs as much as Rs. 7.

Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.