Mumbai: After the launch of the country`s
first indigenously built nuclear submarine, India has the
"technical expertise and capability" to build nuclear-powered
aircraft carrier and warships, Atomic Energy Commission
Chairman Anil Kakodkar has said.
"We have the technical expertise and capability to build
nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and warships of global
standards," Kakodkar said on the sidelines of a function here
last night.
"When the government asks us to build such ships, we will
do it... we are confident that we can build even supply
propelling energy for aircraft carriers," he said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while launching the
nuclear-powered submarine `INS Arihant` last month, had said
that government would be sanctioning development of more such
submarines.
Kakodkar said India will aim to set up 40GWe Light Water
reactors between 2012 and 2020 and for that "we had to go for
international cooperation."
"Once we do this, then the doubling of nuclear power
generation capacity can be achieved through fast breeder
reactors (FBRs) as these are important for our future thorium
programme," he said.
"We cannot afford to hasten the thorium programme and we
have to go step by step to get to use the thorium for the next
200 years," he said.
India is also planning to set up 20 units of indigenous
700 MW of pressurised heavy water (PHWR) type reactor and the
Centre has already agreed in principle for four such units for
which site and environment clearances have been done, Kakodkar
said.
India has already developed 220MW, 540MW PHWR type
nuclear reactors which are operating successfully and it is
possible to have 20 units of 700 MW plants which can run with
indigenous natural uranium as well as imported fuel, he said.
Since the uranium available in India could supply up to
10,000 MW of electricity, the ambitious 700MW PHWRs are part
of the evolutionary development of indigenous design, Kakodkar
said.
All these plant designs are export models and India has
the equipment supply chain for these kind of reactors in place
with its robust infrastructure, Kakodkar said, adding several
countries have already shown interest to buy PHWRs from India.
The AEC Chairman, however, ruled out private sector
participation in nuclear power programmes in the immediate
future.
"It is a different ball game and cannot go the way Enron
went. Here the issues of security and `insider threat`, fuel
accountability are of great concern," he said.
"Therefore, we are evolving design features to provide
adequate security and this is a challenge. Under the
international convention for physical protection, nuclear
materials, all of these things, are important and India is a
signatory to it," Kakodkar said.
On financing of the nuclear power programme, Kakodkar
said, "the state-owned nuclear power corporation is a cash
rich company and joint ventures will be set up with NPCIL
holding majority share."
"For the next 10 to 15 years, finance is not a big issue.
By that time nuclear power will become competitive and
business will propel itself," he said.
Bureau Report
