From 2023, India will build nuclear power plants in “fleet mode”
India plans to start construction on ten ‘fleet mode’ nuclear reactors over the next three years, with the first pour of concrete for a 700 MW atomic power plant in Karnataka’s Kaiga scheduled for 2023.
From the pre-project stage, which includes excavation activities at the project site, the first pour of concrete (FPC) signals the start of nuclear power reactor construction. “The FPC of Kaiga units 5&6 is expected in 2023; the FPC of Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Praiyonjan units 3&4 and Mahi Banswara Rajasthan Atomic Power Projects units 1 to 4 is expected in 2024; and the FPC of Chutka Madhya Pradesh Atomic Power Project units 1&2 is expected in 2025,” Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) officials told a Parliamentary panel on science and technology.
In June 2017, the Centre approved the construction of ten 700 MW indigenously developed pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs). The ten PHWRs will cost Rs. 1.05 lakh crore to construct. For the first time, the government approved the construction of ten nuclear power reactors at once in order to cut costs and shorten construction time.
Purchase orders for forgings for steam generators, SS 304L lattice tubes and plates for end shields, pressuriser forgings, bleed condensers forgings, incoloy-800 tubes for 40 steam generators, and reactor headers were placed for the fleet mode projects, according to DAE officials. The engineering, procurement, and construction package for Gorakhpur units three and four, as well as Kaiga units five and six, has been awarded, they said. A nuclear power plant in the fleet mode is expected to be built in five years from the first pour of concrete.
India currently has 22 reactors in operation with a total capacity of 6780 MW. On January 10 of last year, a 700 MW reactor in Gujarat was connected to the grid, but it has yet to begin commercial operations.
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