February 6, 2009
Govt to set up nuclear parks sans Bihar
Ajit Kumar - February 6, 2009

PATNA : All future nuclear reactors in India will be located in nuclear parks, the first of which is being set up in Jaitapur in Maharashtra, Minister of State in PMO Prithviraj Chavan said.

Each of the nuclear parks is expected to house six to eight nuclear reactors.

“French power major Areva has been allocated a site at Jaitapur in Maharashtra for setting up atomic power plants. Also, Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu is already being developed as a nuclear park with Russian cooperation,” Chavan said.

“Many more new locations besides Jaitapur are under active consideration of the Government for setting up nuclear parks,” Chavan said at a function to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Nuclear Power Corporation and Areva, France’s leading manufacturer of pressurised reactors.

“We plan to build a series of reactors based on technical cooperation with friendly countries like the US, France and Russia,” he said.

Referring to the commercial interests shown by various companies in US and other countries to get a pie in the nuclear power sector in India, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar said that there was enough scope to “accommodate all participants”.

The Manmohan Singh led UPA government has already finalised plans to buy six nuclear reactors from France for Maharashtra and four from Russia for Tamil Nadu.

Incidentally, political parties ruling these states supported Indo-US nuclear deal.

One of the main constituents of UPA, Lalu Prasad Yadav led RJD, whose party was instrumental in getting it passed in parliament, has failed to get a single nuclear plant for Bihar, one of the most power starved state in India.

Setting up of nuclear parks would ensure a planned development of the site, the infrastructure around it and eventually come to be cheaper than stations with just one or two reactors.