L & T Hands Over End Shield To Npcil

Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) formally handed over to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) a 500 MWe nuclear power end shield at a function held at L&T's Hazira Works in Gujarat on Saturday.

P M Mehta, senior vice-president (heavy engineering division) handed over the end shield to V K Chaturvedi, chairman and managing director and member of the Atomic Energy Commission, in the presence of senior executives of NPCIL and L&T. The end shield was then flagged off by Chaturvedi.

According to an L&T press release, this critical equipment has been fabricated in India for the first time and it would be installed at the Tarapur atomic power plant. This end shield is the first of the four such 500 MWe end shields which are under fabrication at L&T's Hazira Works.

These end shields form a crucial part of the pressurised heavy water cooled and heavy water moderated nuclear power reactors (PHWRs) that India has opted for the first phase of the country's nuclear power programme.

The advantage of this reactor is that the natural uranium can be used as fuel, has on-power fuelling facility (without shutting down the reactor) and furthermore, all the components for this reactor can be fabricated within the country, the release added.