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| India-Pakistan |
| 5 nuclear plants shut down for want of fuel |
| 2007-10-21 |
| Mumbai (PTI): Five of the 17 nuclear power plants in the country had been shut down and the remaining are operating at an average of less than 50 per cent capacity for want of fuel, a top official of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited said. Two units at Narora atomic power plant in Uttar Pradesh are shut down for annual maintenance work while the newly commissioned Kaiga unit 3 in Karnataka and one unit of Kalpakkam atomic power plant near Chennai are facing closure for want of fuel, Chairman and Managing Director of NPCIL S K Jain said. Two units of Rajasthan Atomic Power plants are shut down as feeder pipe replacement is taking place, Jain said, adding all these may get started immediately as there was a mismatch of uranium fuel in the country. Rest of the 12 plants which had an established 95 per cent capacity are now running between 50-70 per cent making the average capacity of nuclear power production in the country less than 50 per cent, he said. The Nuclear Fuel Complex Chief Executive R N Jairaj said his company was able to make use of only 30 per cent of the total capacity and is being under-utilised due to the "mismatch" of fuel. The fuel "mismatch" situation has started affecting the performance of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL). Currently operating nuclear power stations with a capacity of around 4,000 MWe, NPCIL has been forced to slash power production levels. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #5 does Al Gore know about that? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-10-21 16:53 |
| #4 Meanwhile, India is building huge coal fired plants... India banks on its ultra mega power projects With electricity shortage threatening to slow down India's robust economic growth, the government is banking on ultra mega power projects which experts say can dramatically improve the situation if implemented properly. Some 10 such projects with a capacity of around 4,000 megawatts each are in the pipeline, of which Anil Ambani's Reliance Power has secured one at Sasan in Madhya Pradesh and Tata Power has bagged one at Mundra in Gujarat. 'The future of ultra-mega power projects is great,' said former power secretary R.V. Shahi, who was instrumental in launching the scheme, adding these projects would also help in lowering electricity tariffs in the country. 'The average level tariff of Rs. 1.19 per unit of electricity that includes both fixed and variable cost components quoted for the Sasan project would not have been possible to achieve without the new scheme,' Shahi told IANS. 'At least six projects totalling 24,000 MW must be implemented to maintain the momentum.' Power ministry officials said among other similar ultra-mega power projects, the bidding process has started for one at Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and another at Tilaiya in Jharkhand. Preparations are in full swing for allocating the remaining projects at Akaltara in Chhattisgarh, Tadri in Karnataka, Girye in Maharashtra, Cheyyur in Tamil Nadu and Ib Valley in Orissa. The Power Finance Corporation (PFC), the nodal agency for supervising preparations for the implementation of these projects, expects to complete the process for handing over the projects to successful bidders by July 2008. |
| Posted by: john frum 2007-10-21 16:33 |
| #3 Just like the socalists here. |
| Posted by: newc 2007-10-21 15:26 |
| #2 The communists are against everything that is progress in India unless it leads directly to glorious peoples' republic. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2007-10-21 14:56 |
| #1 Of course, if Manmohan Singh, in a previous job as Finance Minister, had not closed a producing Uranium mine and prevented new ones from opening, this fuel "mismatch" would not be present. It will take a few years for the new Indian mines to begin production (if the opposition by the environmentalists can be overcome). Singh could be buying Australian Uranium right now but his allies in government (the communists) are dead against the Indo-US nuclear deal and won't allow him to negotiate with the IAEA. |
| Posted by: john frum 2007-10-21 13:24 |