20,000 MW politics

To see this, consider the basic objective: increasing nuclear power generation. The most quoted forecast is 20,000 megawatt (MW) by 2020. For power production, the crucial calculation is cost per MW. Thanks to pre-nuclear deal import restrictions and therefore fully indigenous engineering, nuclear power in India is costly — Rs 8 crore to Rs 9 crore per MW. With India re-entering global nuclear commerce, costs can come down. But there’s a countervailing factor: the price of better technology.

Nuclear power has a high capital cost/low operating cost characteristic. That means time overruns are very expensive. One way to quickly construct nuclear power plants is via standardised design — the same model is replicated across plants. France has done this with great success.

France’s nuclear power programme relies on large plants, 1,300 MW to 1,450 MW. There’s nothing of this size Indian technology can build now. The 1,000 MW plants in India are being built by Russian technology. The French are better at this; Americans incidentally are not the world leaders in this field. So for India to get the best out of the nuclear deal, it must import the best technology for standardised, large plants.

Now, NPCIL can still be in charge of this import-led project, provided the Government can find the money. One estimate of the cost of nuclear power produced with the best technology, quoted by The Economist among others, is $2,000 per kilowatt (KW). That works out to Rs 9 crore per MW (1 MW is 1,000 KW, and $1 is 45 rupees). But since India will import the technology one should add charges like transport, installation and service. Sudha Mahalingam, who writes on energy and is with the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, has put a figure of Rs 10 crore per MW for best practice nuclear power generation in India.

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