Inclusion Of Atomic Power Project In 9th Plan Unlikely

The Planning Commission and the finance ministry are resisting an Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) request to include the 500-mw fast breeder reactor (FBR) project in the ninth plan.

The project, estimated to cost over Rs 8,000 crore, is to be executed over the next five years with technology developed by AEC. The commission has a prototype FBR working at the Indira Gandhi Atomic Centre in Kalpakkam, near Chennai.

Officials said inclusion of the project in the ninth plan could be difficult as over Rs 14,000 crore was needed to import the two reactors for the Kudunkulum project, an agreement for which was signed with Russia during the recent visit of Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda to Moscow.

AEC has demonstrated a power output level of 10.5 mw from its prototype FBR after nearly five years of research. Power output at the prototype has increased constantly.

The commission has already commissioned a detailed design work on the prototype FBR project for which it is seeking Planning Commissions sanction.

For the FBR project, AEC is developing its own fuel facility as well as one for reprocessing used fuel. The reactor is intended to be a showpiece of indigenous atomic energy research as its technology is different from that of enriched uranium light water reactors, like the one at Tarapur, and the natural uranium heavy water technology used at all the other reactors in the country. AEC has sought a budgetary grant of Rs 79.1 crore during 1997-98 for operation of the FBR reactor and would like to start work on the 500-mw plant this year, depending on the clearancefromthe plan panel and the finance ministry.

The poor performance of AEC in terms of nuclear power generation, the capital-intensive nature of nuclear projects and the commissions inability to raise foreign funds on soft terms is creating obstacles in the sanction of new projects.

The Kudunkulum projects detailed project report alone is expected to cost some Rs 200 crore and take up to two years. The entire project is slated to take up to 10 years to complete.Sources said since the Kudunkulum project was certain to be executed during the ninth plan, the chances of new nuclear projects being taken up in the next five years were remote.

Ongoing projects for which commitments have already been made, like the 220-mw project in Kaiga, Karnataka, will continue to gets funds.