NPCIL in talks with NALCO for setting up nuke power plants

 State-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India is in talks with aluminium major NALCO for setting up a joint venture company for building atomic power plants in the country.    

"We are in talks with them (IOC and NALCO) and very soon we will be entering into MoU with these companies," NPCIL CMD S K Jain told reporters on the sidelines of India Electricity Summit 2009 here today.     

NALCO is the third PSU after power producer NTPC and Indian Oil Corporation which has evinced interest to join hands with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) for setting up nuclear power plants.    

"IOC and NALCO have also indicated that they would like to join hands with us as a junior partner for investment on nuclear power sector," he said, adding that IOC had expressed readiness to invest Rs 1,000 crore every year in the JV.     

NPCIL and NTPC signed an MoU in February to start a joint venture company for setting up nuclear power plants. "As far as NTPC is concerned the vision is very clear — to create one more player in this (nuclear) sector," Jain said.   

On role of IOC and NALCO, he said the two public sector units will be investors.     

The nuclear power producer expects to cross the power generation target of 19 billion units this fiscal as it has started using imported fuel from the France-based company Areva.

State-run Nuclear power Corporation of India hopes to exceed its production target of 19 billion units during this fiscal as it has started using imported fuel from the France-based company, Areva.

NPCIL Executive Director (Corporate Planning) S Thakur said fuel supply to its plants is now much better compared to the situation 2-3 years ago.

He said so far NPCIL is exceeding the target and "we are hopeful that we will cross the 19 billion units target" for the current financial year.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the India Electricity 2009 summit here, Thakur said the company had begun generating power from the second unit of the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) using imported fuel from Areva.

"We have started production at our Rajasthan plant using imported fuel from Areva. The condition of fuel supply is now much better compared to the situation 2-3 years ago," Thakur said.

The second unit of RAPS was operationalised on September 1 and it is currently producing 174 megawatt against a total capacity of 220 megawatt, he added.

The operationalisation of the second unit of RAPS came almost a year after the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement.

"We have started production at our Rajasthan plant using imported fuel from Areva. The condition of fuel supply is now much better compared to the situation 2-3 years ago," NPCIL Executive Director (Corporate Planning) S Thakur said.    

"We are hopeful that we will cross the 19 billion units target for the current financial year," he added.     

The second unit of the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station was operationalised on September 1 and it is currently producing 174 MW power against a total capacity of 220 MW.     

Jain said that nuclear power plants across the country were operating at 70 per cent of their installed capacity against less than 50 per cent last year.     

NPCIL in 2008-09 generated 14 billion units of power.     

NPCIL operates 17 atomic power plants with total generation capacity of 4,120 MW.