FOCUS ON ASIA | INDIA
India’s dual track approach
India is to construct a fleet of domestically-designed reactors, along with VVERs imported from Russia and EPRs from France, Saurav Jha reports
WITH 22 OPERATING REACTORS, ONE recently synchronised with the grid, ten under construction and ten more accorded firm sanction, India has one of the most active civil nuclear sectors in the world. India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) expects to have 22,480MWe of nuclear capacity in operation by 2031. Its civil nuclear portfolio is also becoming more diverse, with the addition of pressurised water reactor (PWRs) alongside the construction of larger and improved Indian pressurised heavy water reactors (IPHWRs). DAE also intends to commence construction on
Saurav Jha
Author and commentator on energy and security, based in New Delhi
commercial fast breeder reactors (FBRs) in the 2020s based on the experience of the Prototype FBR (PFBR) at Kalpakkam, which DAE expects will be commissioned by October 2022.
While the domestic industrial base is being consolidated
via the construction of new 700MWe IPHWR-700s, India is looking overseas for PWR technology — and that need not only mean Russia. India continues to be interested in Western PWR technology, with NPCIL receiving a binding techno-commercial bid from France’s EDF in April 2021 for the supply of engineering studies and equipment with regards to the construction of six EPR-1650s at Jaitapur in Maharashtra.
New build On 10 January 2021, Kakrapar Atomic Power Station Unit 3 (KAPS-3) became the first IPHWR-700 to be synchronised with the grid.
22 | August 2021 |
www.neimagazine.com The grid synchronisation of this reactor, which attained
first criticality in July 2020, marks a new phase in the IPHWR programme. KAPS-3 is, after all, the first of 16 indigenous 700MWe PHWRs, with the remaining 15 either at various stages of construction or at the pre-project stage having been accorded administrative approval and financial sanction. Of the remaining 15, five IPHWR-700s (including KAPS- 4, which is expected to attain first criticality sometime this year) are under construction and are expected to be commissioned progressively by 2027. Site clearance has also been accorded by India’s Atomic
Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) to a further four IPHWR- 700s, which along with six more are going to be built in fleet mode. Pre-project activities are currently under way for these ‘fleet mode’ reactors and all ten are expected to be operational by 2031. The capital cost of IPHWR-700s is currently around
$2010/kWe. Taken together, these 16 IPHWR-700s will add 11,200MWe (gross) or 10,080MWe (net) to the Indian system. This fleet will not only consolidate India’s domestic
supply chain for PHWRs but also mark a new generation in CANDU technology development. While retaining many features of the baseline IPHWR-540, the Gen III IPHWR-700 design has certain key improvements. Uprating from 540MWe to 700MWe has been achieved by increasing the quantum of nuclear fissions in the uranium fuel bundles and by flux flattening in the core. Absorption of this additional heat is achieved by allowing up to 3%
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