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India's Atomic Energy Commission was set up in 1948 under the inspired leadership of Homi Bharba, and started to map out a nuclear power program that could have set an example for the rest of the developing world. It was after Bharba's tragic death in a plane crash in 1966 that things started to go a little wrong. To start with, India declined to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and then detonated a nuclear device in 1974 that was said to have been developed for prospective peaceful applications, but that was widely seen by others as a demonstration of potential weapons capability. This resulted in the halt of virtually all technical assistance from nuclear industrial countries and, in particular, the end of collaboration with Canada, which at the time was involved with the construction of two Candu reactors at Rajasthan.
Even before this virtual isolation, India had been working toward a high degree of self-sufficiency, and was predicting a rapid increase of domestic content in future nuclear plants. Today the country can indeed boast a comprehensive capability for the design and construction of nuclear power plants and the complete fuel cycle, as well as some pioneering research and development in such areas as the thorium fuel cycle and use of carbide fuel in fast reactors. But establishing an independent nuclear industry has been a long and difficult process.
Financial constraints and local politics have played their part in delaying development, and the industry has also had its fair share of technical problems. There have been an ample number of well-qualified engineers and scientists and a not inconsiderable manufacturing industry, but one must question the extent to which India's peaceful nuclear development has been held back by the absence of advanced technology transfer from other countries.
A long-stated goal of 10 GWe of nuclear capacity meeting 10 percent of electricity demand by the year 2000 has been fast receding in recent years, and the likely outcome now appears to be about half that figure. Many projects are in the pipeline, however, and the 10-GWe target could still be achieved in the early years of the next century.
Certainly India needs it. Demand for electricity is growing at 8 percent per year, and despite substantial additions of coal-fired and hydro generating capacity, there is still an average shortage in electricity supply of around 10 percent, rising to 23 percent at peak periods. Considering the vast size of the Indian subcontinent, the known reserves of oil and natural gas are quite limited, and proposals for increasing the use of combined-cycle gas turbine plants for electricity generation will depend largely on imports of liquefied natural gas.
Apart from two 160-MWe General Electric boiling water reactors built under a turnkey contract at Tarapur in the 1960s, India's nuclear power program is based on pressurized heavy-water reactors (PHWRs). The first unit at Rajasthan, with a nominal capacity of 207-MWe, was completed with full Canadian assistance and entered commercial service in 1973. The reactor was almost a replica of Canada's prototype Candu plant, which had entered service at Douglas Point only four years previously. The second unit at Rajasthan, of the same size but with a slightly more developed design, had to be completed without Canadian help and did not enter service until 1981.
Two more 220-MWe units were built at Kalpakkam, in Madras, by the Indian Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), entering service in 1984 and 1986. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPC), established as an offshoot of the DAE in 1986, then took over responsibility for the design, construction, and operation of nuclear power plants. NPC has been building and putting into service a new standardized design of PHWR with a nominal rating of 235 MWe. This design incorporates improved seismic features, diverse shutdown systems, and double containment. The first two units at Narora, in Uttar Pradesh, entered service in 1991 and 1992. A third, at Kakrapar, in Guijarat, followed at the beginning of 1993. A serious generator fire at Narora-l in 1993 caused some delay to the commissioning of a second unit at Kakrapar. Following extensive improvements to fire protection systems, however, this reactor was started up at the beginning of this year and is now in commercial service.
Evolution of the standardized reactor design to a larger, 500-MWe unit had been planned from the outset. A new site at Kaiga in Karnataka was to have had the first 500-MWe units, but this was changed at the last minute to more of the 235-MWe design, a total of six of which may eventually be built at the site. Work on Kaiga-l and -2 was halted for a period last year after a construction accident on the containment building, and the expected date for startup of Unit 1 has now slipped from the end of 1995 to the second half of 1996,
Two more units of the 235-MWe design are now under construction at Rajasthan-3 and -4 and are expected to enter service in 1997. Work has finally started on the first two units of the 500-MWe design at Tarapur-3 and -4, but these are not now expected to be in operation until 2000. Another four units are planned for Rajasthan-5 to -8, but they may not be realized until the middle of the next decade.
One deviation from the standardized Indian line of PHWRs was proposed for a site at Koodankulan in southern India. Under a cooperation agreement with the former Soviet Union, two PWRs of the Soviet VVER-1000 type were proposed. This plan was canceled after the breakup of the Soviet Union, but recently Russia concluded a new cooperation agreement with India, and it has been suggested that the Koodankulan project may be revived. Russia, however, has declared a policy of requiring the implementation of full-scope safeguards in any country it supplies with nuclear equipment, and this would seem to preclude revival of the project until there is a political change of heart in India.
For the natural uranium-fueled PHWRs, India has ample reserves of uranium, especially with the discovery in 1991 of a very large ore body of relatively high grade in the northeastern state of Meghalaya. Production of uranium from a long-established mill at Jaduguda in the Singhbhum region is currently running at around 300 te(U) per year, which is more than sufficient to meet expected requirements through to the early years of the next century. Self-sufficiency is also complemented by indigenous production of zirconium and fabrication of zirconium alloy tubing both for fuel cladding and for the calandria tubes of the PHWRs. A large nuclear fuel complex at Hyderabad claims the capability to fabricate fuel for all types of reactors in India, including the PHWRs, the BWRs, and the 50-MWt fast reactor at Kalpakkam.
India also boasts the world's largest known reserves of thorium--an estimated 360000 te. From the earliest days of its nuclear program, India has declared an interest in the development of the thorium fuel cycle to offer the long-term possibility of harnessing this vast energy potential both in PHWRs and fast reactors. Processing of irradiated thorium for the extraction of uranium-233 has been developed, and a first core with U-233 is operating in the Dhruva experimental reactor at the Bhabha research center.
Heavy-water production has proved to be somewhat of a problem for several countries that have adopted natural uranium rather than enriched uranium to fuel their commercial nuclear power plants. With India, too, there could have been difficulties in supplying reactor inventories had not the nuclear power plant construction program itself suffered delays. Now eight operating heavy-water plants offer a total production capacity of more than 650 te/yr, which is adequate to meet domestic requirements and has also allowed recent export sales of 100 te to South Korea and 350 te to Romania. Six of the plants use ammonia exchange processes and are associated with fertilizer production plants, and the other two use the hydrogen sulfide process.
India underlined a firm commitment to fuel recycle by commissioning a pilot-scale reprocessing plant at Trombay back in 1964. The plant, which was later refurbished to increase capacity from 10 to 30 te/yr, has been mainly used for the reprocessing of research reactor fuel from the nearby Bhabha research center, and offers have been made to undertake similar reprocessing under safeguards for research reactors in other countries. A second reprocessing plant with a nominal capacity of 100 te/yr was put into operation in 1969 and has been used to reprocess spent fuel from the Tarapur, Rajasthan, and Madras power stations. So far the politically controversial step of reprocessing U.S.-origin fuel from Tarapur has been avoided. A third 120 te/yr reprocessing plant is said to be nearing completion at Kalpakkam and is intended mainly to supply the needs of the nearby experimental fast reactor and a proposed future 50-MWe fast reactor power plant. A first vitrification plant for high-level reprocessing wastes is operating at the Tarapur site, and others are under construction at Trombay and Kalpakkam.
Source: Nuclear News Review Article