India to spell out N-capacity addition plan

AEC chairman Srikumar Banerjee to lead team at next week’s 55th annual meet in Vienna.

Notwithstanding the just six-month-old Fukushima disaster and the accident in France’s Centraco this Monday, India will spell out its nuclear capacity addition programme — buffered by upgraded safety applications — at the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting next week. The Indian delegation at the 55th general conference of the Vienna-based UN atomic agency would be led by the country’s Atomic Energy Commission chairman Srikumar Banerjee, who is secretary at the department of atomic energy, starting from September 19.

The five-day conclave at the Austrian capital is crucial, especially when almost all nuclear countries have reviewed the safety applications and launched upgradation and strengthening programmes after the March 11 Fukushima disaster in Japan. The conference would discussions at length on the country-wise nuclear capacity addition programme, the proposed curtailment by some nuclear countries after the Fukushima disaster and a slew of safety upgradation measures.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already announced India’s plan to continue pursuing its programme to increase the nuclear generation capacity to 63,000 Mw by 2032 from the present level of 4,780 Mw.

An official at the Department of Atomic Energy noted that the task forces appointed by the Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) have come up with important recommendations. “Accordingly, the NPC has launched safety upgradation at the plants,” he told Business Standard.

Already a committee constituted by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), which is India’s nuclear regulator, has made several recommendations to strengthen safety at nuclear plants which can tackle natural disasters like tsunami and earthquake.

The official informed that the AERB appointed committee said the NPC has already taken interim safety measures to enhance safety of the two older boiling water reactors which are operational at Tarapur in light of the Fukushima accident. The steps include provisions of continuous reactor cooling under prolonged station blackout in which loss of both offsite and onsite power supplies is considered and preparatory work for inerting the containment with nitrogen to avoid hydrogen explosions as happened at Fukushima.

Further, India would speak at length the onsite and offsite emergency preparedness plans which are in place at each nuclear power station. Both exercises for verifying and validating the emergency preparedness are carried out periodically, with the frequency stipulated by the regulatory procedures. These exercises are a good tool to validate the emergency plans, procedures and the availability of various measures.

The official informed that the AEC chairman-led delegation would convey to the gathering India’s Inter-governmental bilateral agreements with Russian Federation, France, USA, UK, Canada, Namibia for the procurement of reactors and associated supplies. These pacts provide for unconditional nuclear trade with New Delhi.