Nuclear Power Corpn to team up with IOC, Nalco
New Delhi   30-Apr-2010

After its recent agreement to form a joint venture with NTPC to set up nuclear power plants, Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) is now in the process of concluding similar agreements with the country's biggest oil retailer Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and aluminium major National Aluminium Company (Nalco) in the next few months.

EQUITY PARTNERS

This is part of NPCIL's efforts at bringing in a clutch of equity partners to raise financial resources to fuel the country's nuclear power programme that aims at achieving a generation capacity of 35,000 MW by 2020 and 45,000 MW by 2032.

Mr S.K. Jain, NPCIL's Chairman and Managing Director, said within the next two weeks the boards of NPCIL and NTPC would meet to finalise the modalities for setting up a new joint venture company, which will be a subsidiary of both the partners.

The new entity will then identify nuclear power projects and explore ways to finance them, he told presspersons on the sidelines of a function here on Thursday to mark the delivery of fuelling machine head for the advanced heavy water reactors.

Mr Jain said the agreements with IOC and Nalco would be slightly different in that the oil and aluminium companies would be primarily equity partners for certain specific projects. "Other organisations like the Indian Railways have also approached us to participate in India's nuclear power programme for their captive power requirement - we are evaluating the proposals," he added.

Dr Srikumar Banerjee, AEC Chairman and Secretary to the Department of Atomic Energy, said India currently produced 4,560 MW of nuclear power with 19 reactors at six sites. Four reactors were under construction that would enhance generation capacity 7,280 MW by 2012, he added.

The four reactors include two light water reactors (1,000 MW each) at Kudankulam and one 500 MW fast breeder reactor at Kalpakkam.

Dr Banerjee said between 2012 and 2017, four pressurised heavy water reactors would be set up in Gujarat (two) and Rajasthan (two) to add 2,800 MW. "This will take our total generation capacity to over 10,000 MW by 2017," he said.

He said in the longer term there were plans to set up nuclear energy parks at coastal sites in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, with each park designed to have a total generating capacity of 10,000 MW with about six reactors.