Indian Civil Nuclear News & Discussions.

[RPK]

French Parliament ratifies Indo-French nuclear deal

New Delhi: Crossing a significant milestone, the Indo-French civil nuclear agreement was unanimously adopted by the French Parliament, paving way for companies to build nuclear power plants in India.

The French National Assembly on Tuesday adopted a law authorising the ratification of the Cooperation Agreement between India and France on the Development of Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy, a French Embassy statement said.


The French Senate had adopted the law on October 15.

"The unanimous vote by both Assemblies is an important milestone in the development of the civilian nuclear cooperation between France and India," the statement said.

France was the first country to sign a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with India within days of the lifting of the international nuclear trade embargo on India last year.

French nuclear supplier Areva has been allocated the nuclear project site at Jaitapur in Maharashtra to initially build two power plants.

The India-specific waiver of the nuclear transfer guidelines of the Nuclear Suppliers Group was issued on September 6 and the agreement with France was signed on September 30.

The ratification of the agreement by French Parliament will enable its early implementation, the statement said.

 

[deckingraj]

After Russia, France operationalises nuclear accord

AP ON PAR: France's President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Amazon Summit in Brazil. A french law now authorises the cooperation agreement between India and France over the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
France has become the second country after Russia to fully opertionalise the inter-country nuclear agreement with India.

The French National Assembly adopted a law authorising ratification of the Cooperation Agreement between India and France on the Development of Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy signed in Paris on September 30 last year. The Senate approved the same law on October 15 this year.

“The unanimous vote by both Assemblies is an important milestone in the development of the civilian nuclear cooperation between France and India. It will enable the early entry into force of the Agreement. It now paves the way for strengthening relations between French and Indian partners and for more concrete developments in the industrial field,” said a French Embassy release here.

“France and India are keen to build a multiform partnership. The strengthening of their civilian nuclear cooperation will contribute to economic growth and development, improve energy security and contribute to limiting greenhouse gas emissions,” the release said.

N-power park

India has allotted a nuclear power park at Jaitapur in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district to the French company Areva, to build two power plants initially with an option for setting up more. Both countries have also reached an understanding on guaranteed supply of uranium to power these reactors.

According to government sources here, France has agreed to reprocess the spent nuclear fuel from French reactors under safeguards.

Following an assurance given by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during their last summit meeting in Paris, France would not put hurdles to transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technologies provided it is done under the watch of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The Hindu : News / International : After Russia, France operationalises nuclear accord

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No doubt all this is sounding music to my ears ...

 

[Iggy]

After Russia, France operationalises nuclear accord

AP ON PAR: France's President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Amazon Summit in Brazil. A french law now authorises the cooperation agreement between India and France over the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
France has become the second country after Russia to fully opertionalise the inter-country nuclear agreement with India.

The French National Assembly adopted a law authorising ratification of the Cooperation Agreement between India and France on the Development of Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy signed in Paris on September 30 last year. The Senate approved the same law on October 15 this year.

“The unanimous vote by both Assemblies is an important milestone in the development of the civilian nuclear cooperation between France and India. It will enable the early entry into force of the Agreement. It now paves the way for strengthening relations between French and Indian partners and for more concrete developments in the industrial field,” said a French Embassy release here.

“France and India are keen to build a multiform partnership. The strengthening of their civilian nuclear cooperation will contribute to economic growth and development, improve energy security and contribute to limiting greenhouse gas emissions,” the release said.

N-power park

India has allotted a nuclear power park at Jaitapur in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district to the French company Areva, to build two power plants initially with an option for setting up more. Both countries have also reached an understanding on guaranteed supply of uranium to power these reactors.

According to government sources here, France has agreed to reprocess the spent nuclear fuel from French reactors under safeguards.

Following an assurance given by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during their last summit meeting in Paris, France would not put hurdles to transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technologies provided it is done under the watch of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The Hindu : News / International : After Russia, France operationalises nuclear accord

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No doubt all this is sounding music to my ears ...

Me too bro me too

 

[ouiouiouiouiouioui]

had a toast raised to that ocassion !!...

 

[Lankan Ranger]

India & Canada reach civil nuclear agreement

India & Canada today concluded negotiations on a civil nuclear cooperation with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Canadian
counterpart Stephen Harper describing the development as a "milestone" opening up "tremendous opportunity" for the two countries.

The negotiations were firmed up at a meeting between Singh and Harper here on the sidelines of Commonwealth Summit.

Canada, which is the world's largest producer of uranium, has become the eighth country with which India has reached civil nuclear agreement since the NSG lifted a 34-year-old ban on India to join global nuclear trade in September last year.

The other countries with which India has already signed the civil nuclear deal are the US, France, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Argentina and Namibia.

The Canadian Prime Minister was in New Delhi on November 17 when the two countries had announced that they are working to complete the civil nuclear deal.

Singh said "the civil nuclear agreement is a very important step forward, a milestone for the development of our relationship."

Pointing out that the civil nuclear agreement with Canada was hanging fire for sometime, he said Harper "proved to be absolutely true to his words" as he had said the negotiations should be complete in a short period of eight to ten days.

"I thank the Prime Minister (Harper) from the core of my heart for having expedited this process beyond my expectations. It augurs extremely well for the development of our relation," Singh said.

Harper pointed out he had discussed the civil nuclear agreement issue with Singh when he was in Delhi earlier this month.

"Prime minister and I agreed that it should be brought to a conclusion very rapidly," he said.

Singh said "we have discussed ways and means of expanding the content of our relationship, to widen it and to deepen it in every possible way."

He said "India's needs for nuclear energy are enormous and we need a lot more energy to make our development process a success."

Harper said "increased collaboration with India's civil nuclear energy market will allow Canadian companies to benefit from greater access to one of the world's largest and fastest expanding economies".

"We have now got an agreement which means this is a tremendous opportunity for both countries," he said.

The agreement will allow Canadian firms to export and import controlled nuclear materials, equipments and technology to and from India, a statement issued by Harper's office said.

"We will be seeking a little bit of time to complete the normal legal text and the ratification process. But this is a tremendous economies step forward and tremendous step forward in our relationship," Harper said.

From:India, Canada reach civil nuclear agreement - India - The Times of India

 

[holysaturn]

great articles......for a moment my body hair stood at 90 while reading it.

 

[StingRoy]

Canada, India reach nuclear deal - The Globe and Mail

Ottawa and Delhi have concluded negotiations on a deal allowing Canadian companies to resume sales of uranium and nuclear technology to India for the first time since it used Canada’s know-how to develop warheads 35 years ago.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose minority government is eagerly courting Indo-Canadian voters and India's nuclear industry market, made the announcement today while at a Commonwealth leaders’ summit in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

“This agreement is a testimony to the undeniable potential that Canada and India can offer each other and the world,” Mr. Harper said in a statement after meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

India’s civilian nuclear energy market is be worth anywhere from $25-billion to $50-billion in business opportunities over the next 20 years.

 

[Chanakyaa]

After US,France Russia NOW its Canada.

REUTERS, Nov 28 : Ottawa and Delhi have concluded negotiations on a deal allowing Canadian companies to resume sales of uranium and nuclear technology to India for the first time since it used Canada’s know-how to develop warheads 35 years ago.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose minority government is eagerly courting Indo-Canadian voters and India's nuclear industry market, made the announcement today while at a Commonwealth leaders’ summit in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

“This agreement is a testimony to the undeniable potential that Canada and India can offer each other and the world,” Mr. Harper said in a statement after meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

India’s civilian nuclear energy market is be worth anywhere from $25-billion to $50-billion in business opportunities over the next 20 years.

The Conservative government declined to release the text of the India-Canada deal, however, saying it would only be released when implementing legislation is tabled in Parliament. The minority Tory government will require the support of MPs from one opposition party in order to pass the agreement.

Indo-Canadian relations have been cool for 30 years. Canada was furious when India developed a nuclear-weapons program in 1974 by misappropriating Canadian nuclear-reactor technology.

But over the past two years, both countries have been attempting to improve relations, which should be close, if only because more than a million Canadians are of Indian ancestry, with only China sending more immigrants here each year.

There have been 11 ministerial visits to India over the past 2½ years, including five this year alone.

The gradual – and by no means total – evolution of the Indian economy from state control and high tariffs toward more open-market principles has contributed to white-hot economic growth. In the midst of a global recession, India's economy will expand by 6 per cent this year.

With growth comes hunger for energy. India's 17 nuclear reactors provide only 2.5 per cent of the country's electricity, but that figure is expected to double within a decade.

Former U.S. president George W. Bush negotiated an agreement in which India separated its civilian and military nuclear programs, subjecting the former to the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency. France followed suit, and already has a contract to provide India with two new reactors. Canada wants to tap this market as well.

Resistance comes from those who point to India's unreliability in keeping its word when it comes to nuclear-energy safeguards. And there is the question of whether such an agreement would also include the sale of uranium to fuel Indian power plants. Australia, another major supplier of uranium, is resisting selling uranium to India unless it signs the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Agreement, which is unlikely, given that both India and its rival Pakistan are nuclear powers.

But the fact remains that Canada's hand is weak and India's strong.

India and China are the two big markets for nuclear-energy technology, with dozens of new reactors planned or under construction.

If Canada wants to have any hope of keeping its nuclear-energy industry alive, it must reach civilian nuclear agreements with both countries. And there is talk in Ottawa that Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd. could enter into technology, marketing or even ownership partnerships with the Indians.

 

[RPK]

fullstory

Kakodkar steps down as AEC chairman

Mumbai, Nov 30 (PTI) Eminent nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar, who played a crucial role in the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, stepped down as the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) today.

Kakodkar gave his distinguished services to the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) for 45 years and also served as DAE secretary on superannuation.

He played a significant role in the Indo-US and other inter-governmental civil nuclear cooperations agreements with great negotiation skills.

Easily approachable, Kakodkar holds the distinction of getting an extension as AEC chairman three times and held the post for nine years.

He is the first chairman who initiated talks about modification of Atomic Energy Act to bring in Indian private players in the energy sector.

 

[deckingraj]

India and Russia have finalised the text of an overarching framework for nuclear cooperation which will ensure that no ongoing nuclear power project or uranium fuel supply arrangement with the Russian side would be affected or stopped in the event of termination of bilateral cooperation for any reason.

This assurance, which mirrors a similar provision in the Indo-French nuclear cooperation agreement, is considered by India a major improvement over the ‘123 Agreement’ it had signed with the United States. That agreement provides for not just termination of ongoing cooperation but also for the return to the U.S. of already supplied components and fuel in the event of the agreement being terminated.

The signing of the Indo-Russian agreement, whose language was settled late on Wednesday night, will be the highlight of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Moscow beginning on Sunday, highly placed sources told The Hindu.

Although the Russians baulked at explicitly including enrichment and reprocessing technology within the ambit of the agreement, the question had been subsumed under the rubric of broad-based cooperation in nuclear R&D, the sources said, and could be fleshed out later.

Among the other highlights of the proposed agreement are built-in reprocessing consent rights for all future Russian reactors supplied to India. At present, this consent has been separately detailed in the Kudankulam reactor agreement. The draft also provides for India to enrich Russian-supplied uranium up to 20 per cent, the level necessary for the production of medical isotopes. “Thus this pact goes beyond present agreements on fuel supply assurances, new sites and setting up of reactors,” said sources.


The Hindu : News / National : India, Russia finalise new nuclear agreement
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I have a question for members here...Let's say India goes for a nuclear test - i know there are no indications they will in near future but lets for the sake of argument India did...Does this agreement ensures nuclear supply will still be on??? I mean what does this below quotes exactly mean...

which will ensure that no ongoing nuclear power project or uranium fuel supply arrangement with the Russian side would be affected or stopped in the event of termination of bilateral cooperation for any reason.

Anyways seems like Mr. Manmohan Singh govt. is on a roll when it comes to nuclear fuel for energy purposes...Great Going

 

[deckingraj]

A little bit related news....This kind of re-instate and makes one applause diplomacy by which we are able to manage good relations with Russia at one hand and improving with US on the other....Great going

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Revitalising India-Russia ties

The two countries are rediscovering the values of their traditional friendship in the face of ongoing shifts in global political and economic equations.

After a period of drift in bilateral relations India and Russia are poised for re-energising their ties when the leaders of the two countries meet in Moscow for an annual summit next week.

Certain frostiness that clouded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s previous visit to Russia two years ago is gone.Relations have been on the upswing ever since the maiden visit of President Dmitry Medvedev to India in December 2008, when the two c ountries signed an intergovernmental agreement for the construction of another four nuclear reactors at Kudankulam. This year, which is the Year of India in Russia, has seen a string of top-level contacts unprecedented in the post-Soviet history of Indo-Russian relations. In June Mr. Singh visited Russia for the summit meetings of the BRIC (Brazil-Russia-India-China) and the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation). Indian diplomats acknowledged that Mr. Singh’s participation in the SCO summit — the first ever by an Indian Prime Minister — was a special gesture towards Russia as the host country.

In September President Pratibha Patil paid a five-day state visit to Russia to assure the Kremlin that New Delhi’s ties with other countries (i.e. the United States) “would not be at the expense of our relationship with Russia.” Later the same month Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma brought a 70-member delegation of Indian leaders to a Russian-Indian Forum on Trade and Investment. This was followed in quick succession by the visits of External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and Defence Minister A.K. Antony.

Indian diplomats have noted a perceptible warming towards India in the Kremlin as well. Moscow sent a strong signal of the importance it attaches to ties with India when it appointed a heavyweight, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Sobyanin, as the Russian co-chair for the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission (IRIGC) on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation. In a remarkable departure from the established diplomatic tradition whereby preparations for bilateral summits are held in the host country Mr. Sobyanin undertook an unplanned trip to India in October to better prepare for the December visit of the Indian Prime Minister to Moscow.

In another sign of Moscow’s renewed focus on India President Medvedev in October appointed a new envoy to New Delhi, Alexander Kadakin. The Centre for Political Conjuncture, a Kremlin-connected think tank, described the appointment as a “strategic move” aimed at revitalising ties with India. It was during Ambassador Kadakin’s previous tenure in New Delhi in 1999-2004 that India and Russia declared strategic partnership.

Today the two countries are rediscovering the values of their traditional friendship in the face of ongoing shifts in global political and economic equations.

“Indian elites have awakened to the fact that the Pax Americana is a thing of the past and they should not put all their eggs in the U.S. basket,” says Andrei Volodin of the Moscow-based Institute of Oriental Studies.

“Russian leaders, for their part, have realised that global power is fast gravitating to the Asia-Pacific region, where India is an increasingly important player,” the expert opined. Economic ties with the Asian region are instrumental for the success of Russian plans to redevelop Siberia and the Far East.

The challenges of dealing with China’s rising power are further encouraging India and Russia to reach out to each other, Prof. Volodin said.

The global economic crisis has also played a role pushing India and Russia closer to each other. Defying a world trade slump, Indo-Russian commerce has grown more than 10 per cent this year and is well on track to attain the target of $10 billion the two countries set for 2010. This shows the potential for growth that is yet to be tapped. At its annual session in October the Inter-Governmental Commission has set a new target for 2015 — $20 billion, which would still be a modest figure compared with either country’s trade with China, but would mark a huge leap from the past decade when bilateral trade stagnated at $2-3 billion a year.

To achieve this target the two countries must concentrate on diversifying their trade basket, away from commodities into advanced technologies. During Mr. Singh’s visit to Moscow the sides are expected to sign key accords in high-tech sectors — a new nuclear power deal to expand cooperation beyond the Kudankulam plant and a 10-year defence cooperation programme.

Experts, however, warn of pitfalls that may still mar the auspicious atmosphere for the coming summit. The most serious problem is the continuing standoff over the upward price revision for the refurbishment of the Gorshkov aircraft carrier.

“Absence of progress in the price talks is a worrying sign, especially in the context of a recent British offer to sell India an aircraft carrier,” said Ruslan Pukhov, a leading Russian defence analyst and director of the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. “It could be a prelude to the cancellation of the deal. The Russian military would be only too happy to add the Gorshkov in their inventory. But such an outcome would deal a painful blow to our defence cooperation with India.”


The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Revitalising India-Russia ties

 

[ironman]

India, Russia finalise new nuclear agreement​

NEW DELHI, December 4, 2009

India and Russia have finalised the text of an overarching framework for nuclear cooperation which will ensure that no ongoing nuclear power project or uranium fuel supply arrangement with the Russian side would be affected or stopped in the event of termination of bilateral cooperation for any reason. This assurance, which mirrors a similar provision in the Indo-French nuclear cooperation agreement, is considered by India a major improvement over the Indo-U.S. ‘123 agreement’. That text provides for not just termination of ongoing cooperation but also for the return to the U.S. of already supplied components and fuel in the event of the agreement being terminated.

The signing of the Indo-Russian agreement, whose language was settled late Wednesday night, will be the highlight of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Moscow beginning on Sunday, highly placed sources told The Hindu.

Although the Russians baulked at explicitly including enrichment and reprocessing technology within the ambit of the agreement, the question has been subsumed under the rubric of broad-based cooperation in nuclear R&D, the sources said, and could be fleshed out later.

Among the other highlights of the proposed agreement are built-in reprocessing consent rights for all future Russian reactors supplied to India. At present, this consent has been separately detailed in the Kudankulam reactor agreement. The draft also provides for India to enrich Russian supplied uranium up to 20 per cent, the level necessary for the production of medical isotopes. “Thus this pact goes beyond present agreements on fuel supply assurances, new sites and setting up of reactors,” said sources.

With the Cabinet Committee on Security giving its approval on Wednesday, the stage is also set for the procurement of additional fighters as well, said highly placed sources. The CCS also considered a pact to jointly develop a multi-role transport aircraft (MTA). The two sides will also extend their military cooperation agreement up to 2020 which will emphasise the move away from a buyer-seller relationship.

Following the discovery of fake drugs in Indian consignments to Russia, the two sides will sign an agreement on ensuring the safety and quality of medical products. Besides giving a boost to pharmaceutical exports to Russia, standard setting could also enhance prospects of exporting to Central Asian countries which are also keen to import Indian medicines.

In order to once again make Russia an attractive destination for Indian students, the two sides are likely to come to an agreement on the recognition of Russian diplomas. While only 5,000 India students are in Russia, the corresponding figure for the US and Australia is about one lakh each. Apart from the umbrella nuclear agreement, much store is being put on the MTA project as it will give India an opportunity to enter the global export market. According to the project report, over 200 MTAs in various configurations will be made. Russia will buy 100, India 45 and about 60 will exported to third countries. Although there is confusion over the identity of the Russian partner, sources expect the first plane to roll out six years after the project takes off.

 

[Screaming Skull]

Multi-faceted visionary - Homi J. Bhabha​

• On Homi Bhabha's birth centenary, eminent personalities and scientists come together to pay tribute.

20th century giants: File picture of Homi Bhabha (extreme right) with Einstein (extreme left) at Princeton University.​

Which was the bigger compliment could well be a matter of debate — that Homi Bhabha was called the modern-day Leonardo da Vinci, or that the words came from none less than Nobel-winning physicist C.V. Raman. However, what is for sure is that the words were not misplaced.

Bhabha was born on October 30, 1909. At his centenary conclave held at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai from November 20 to 22, old colleagues, students and fellows of the Bhabha fellowship reminisced about various facets of his personality.

While introducing Bhabha at a meeting at the Indian Academy of Sciences in Nagpur in 1941, Raman called him a great lover of music, a gifted artist, a brilliant engineer and an outstanding scientist. His all-round personality inspired Raman to term him “the modern equivalent of Leonardo da Vinci”. In a letter to a friend in 1934, Bhabha wrote: “Art, music, poetry and everything else that I do have this one purpose (sic) — increasing the intensity of my consciousness of life.”

The Homi Bhabha Fellowships Council has tried to reflect his wide-ranging tastes since its inauguration in 1967. Several of the fellows made presentations on the projects they got the fellowship for. These were on topics as varied as ‘The Forgotten Kaavi Kala of the Konkan' by Heta Pandit to ‘Interrogating Insect Societies' by Raghavendra Gadgakar.

Vision for the country

Another aspect of Bhabha's personality that came through in the course of the conclave was his single-minded pursuit of the vision he had for India. Though he went to Cambridge to study engineering as per his father's wish, Bhabha knew he was more interested in physics and mathematics. In 1928, therefore, he wrote to his father, making what he wanted out of life amply clear to him. Eventually, Bhabha's father did let him pursue his line of interest, and he became a ‘successful' man in every sense of the term. In 1939, Bhabha came to India for a holiday and stayed on after the Second World War broke out.

It was while working at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore that he realised that the equipment needed for research in Atomic Physics was not available in India. However, instead of fleeing to greener pastures, he decided to stick on and shape his motherland's tryst with science. In 1944, he wrote a letter to the Tata Trust, asking for support in setting up a centre for research in nuclear science. The TIFR was founded in 1945 at the behest of Bhabha, who became its first director.

That was just the beginning. In 1948, he became the first chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). When the Department of Atomic Energy was formed in 1954, he became its ex-officio secretary. Shortly after that, it was decided to set up the Atomic Energy Establishment Trombay (AEET) for application of atomic energy to peaceful purposes. Bhabha became its first director in 1957. After his death, it was renamed as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.

Successful approach

Bhabha and Jawaharlal Nehru shared a common vision that saw science as an important pillar of modern India. Nehru gave Bhabha a free hand because of the faith he had in his talent and dedication, while Bhabha replicated the same approach in his dealings with his colleagues and students. Former union minister Arun Shourie, another former fellow, called this an approach of “unobtrusive oversight”.

In the final evaluation, Bhabha stands out as a man of tremendous foresight. In the letter he wrote to the Tata Trust in 1944 to propose the foundation of the TIFR, he said: “When nuclear energy has been successfully applied to power production in, say, a couple of decades from now, India will not have to look abroad for its experts, but will find them ready at hand.” In retrospect, his words seem to ring with prophecy.

By the time Bhabha died in a plane crash on January 24, 1966 near Mont Blanc in France, he had already achieved what an ordinary mortal would not have been able to in two lifetimes. But is there something that Bhabha failed to achieve despite his desire to increase his life's intensity and despite his well-rounded personality?

“A sense of humour – like most scientists,” said M.G.K. Menon to tremendous laughter from the audience. One can be sure that the nation forgives him for that.

The Hindu : Magazine / Tribute : Multi-faceted visionary

 

[Screaming Skull]

India’s fast breeder reactor achieves second milestone​

December 6th, 2009

Chennai, Dec 6 (IANS) India’s first indigenously designed 500MW fast breeder nuclear power project achieved its second milestone albeit silently when the huge main vessel was lowered into the safety vessel, an official said.
“We have been waiting to do this for quite sometime but were not permitted by the rain gods. As the sky was clear, we decided to go ahead with the lowering of the main vessel and completed it Saturday,” project director Prabhat Kumar told IANS from Kalpakkam.

The Rs.5,600 crore project is being built by the Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (Bhavini) at the Kalpakkam nuclear enclave, around 80 km from here.

A fast breeder reactor is one which breeds more material for a nuclear fission reaction than it consumes and key to India’s three stage nuclear power programme.

Lowering of the huge stainless steel main vessel - 12.9 metres in diameter and 12.94 metres in height, weighing 206 tonnes - is considered a major step in completing the 500 MW power project by the September 2011 deadline.

India’s fast breeder reactor achieves second milestone

 

[brahmastra]

India’s first indigenously designed 500MW fast breeder nuclear power project at Kalpakkam achieved its second milestone when the huge main vessel was lowered into the safety vessel, an official said on Sunday.

“We have been waiting to do this for quite sometime but were not permitted by the rain gods. As the sky was clear, we decided to go ahead with the lowering of the main vessel and completed it on Saturday,” Project Director Prabhat Kumar told IANS from Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu.

The Rs. 5,600 crore project is being built by the Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (Bhavini) at the Kalpakkam nuclear enclave, around 80 km from here.

A fast breeder reactor is one which breeds more material for a nuclear fission reaction than it consumes and key to India’s three stage nuclear power programme.

Lowering of the huge stainless steel main vessel - 12.9 metres in diameter and 12.94 metres in height, weighing 206 tonnes - is considered a major step in completing the 500 MW power project by the September 2011 deadline.

The lowering of main vessel was delayed as civil construction works are on and the officials did not want to risk even a speck of dust inside the vessel that would hold the coolant liquid sodium, reactor fuel and grid plates.

The sodium-cooled fast reactor designed by the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) has three vessels - a safety vessel, a main vessel and an inner vessel.

Outermost is the stainless steel safety vessel, which was lowered into the reactor vault last June - the first milestone.

The third and smallest of the three vessels is the inner vessel - 11 metres tall. It houses pumps, heat exchangers and other equipment. Together, they all go inside the main vessel.

The cone-shaped inner vessel, thermal baffle, grid plate and primary pipes are also ready and officials expect the roof slab of the nuclear reactor to be closed by next March.

As for the power generation part of the project, erection of the gas-insulated switchyard is nearing completion and the gas filling process has begun.