Nalco in talks with NPCIL for Rs 12,000cr nuclear power plant

National Aluminium Company (Nalco) is in talks with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) to jointly set up a Rs 12,000 crore nuclear power plant in south Orissa's Ganjam district.

“The talks between Nalco and NPCIL are in progress for the proposed nuclear power plant”, said CR Pradhan, chairman and managing director of Nalco during his visit to the company's alumina refinery plant at Damanjodi in Orissa's Koraput district. Nalco is likely to have a 50 per cent stake in the project.

Nalco is one of the largest producers of power in the state with 1200 Mw captive thermal power plant near its aluminium smelter at Angul. Power accounts for nearly half of the input for aluminium making.

Meanwhile, around 10,000 acres of land has already been identified at Pati Sonapur, a beach resort village near Berhampur, for the proposed plant and the township area.

The proposed nuclear power pant would be the first nuclear plant in the country after the signing of the Indo-US nuclear deal. Prior to the signing of the nuclear deal, NPCIL had proposed to set up a mega nuclear power plant at Gopalpur, a beach resort town in south Orissa.The details on the proposed nuclear power plant and the joint venture company to be formed by Nalco and NPCIL are yet to be worked out, said a senior official of Nalco.

Although some other sites were also identified for the proposed nuclear power plant, Pati Sonapur on the Orissa-Andhra Pradesh border is being accorded high priority because of its proximity to the

Orissa Sands Complex (OSCOM), a unit of the Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL), under the Centre's department of atomic energy. IREL has decided to set up a Rs 150-crore monazite processing plant within the OSCOM site to extract uranium from monazite. Uranium is essential for nuclear power generation.