India's Targets 63 Gigawatts of Nuclear Power by 2032 with Low-Cost Reactors

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--R.K. Sinha, the chief of India's Department of Atomic Energy, told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) (Vienna, Austria) that India's nuclear power plants posted their highest performance rate in 2012.

"The average annual availability of the Indian nuclear power plants has remained at 90%," Sinha said. "Six of the 19 reactors currently under operation in the country have logged continuous operation of more than 300 days during the year. The Indian nuclear power sector has registered over 379 reactor years of safe operation."

According to official sources, India is planning to build 16 more pressurized heavy water reactors and plans to have 63,000 megawatts (MW) of installed nuclear power by 2032.

Sinha claims that the Indian pressurized heavy water reactors are some of the most economical in the world. Currently, four are being built: two at Kakrapar in Gujarat, and two in Rawatbhatta in Rajasthan.

Sinha stressed the environmentally friendly nature of nuclear power (an opinion which does not go undisputed). He also said that India has brought down the price of a nuclear reactor to among the cheapest in the world.

The prototype fast-breeder reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam was close to completion, he said: "The critical erection of all permanent in-core components has been completed. Filling of sodium in the secondary sodium loop is planned shortly, and the PFBR is expected to achieve first criticality in about a year from now."

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