With the Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement still far from being done, a shortage in fuel supplies has resulted in a majority of nuclear power plants in India showing a decline in their operating capacities compared to last year. This has led to a 10 per cent reduction in overall power generation.

According to information available on the website of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), the capacity factor of ten of the 17 units has gone down in 2007-08 (till February) compared to the previous year. In some cases, like Unit-I in Kalpakkam, the fall in the operating capacity has been drastic, coming down to 36 per cent from 72 per cent last year. Unit-1 in Kakrapar has similarly been operating at only 46 per cent of its capacity as compared to 67 per cent last year.

Four of the plants have also shown a marginal increase of 2-5 per cent in their operating capacities.

In 2006-07, these 17 power plants together generated 18,800 million units (MUs) of electricity which has come down to 15,600 MUs this year (till February). NPCIL says at the end of this month, the expected total figure is 17,000 MUs.

Asked about the decline in total power generation, NPCIL pointed out that three of the units, one each at Narora, Kaiga and Rawatbhatta, have not operated for most of the year because of different maintenance related reasons. The plant at Narora underwent a coolant channel replacement and has already been synchronized back into operation earlier this month. The Kaiga unit is shut down since August last year because of generator repair and replacement and is expected to resume operations within a week.

... contd.