'India has to hunt for uranium mines abroad'

MUMBAI: India will not hesitate to pick up stakes in uranium mines abroad as it requires an additional 3000 MW of nuclear power every year to meet its energy needs, the chief of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd has said.

"The requirement of power is so large that we need to add at least 3000 MW every year and since the life time fuel supplies need to be ensured for each of the reactors we willnot hesitate to buy stakes in mining companies," NPCIL Chairman and Managing Director S K Jain said.
 
With India's nuclear power programme growing rapidly, the mode of partnership needs to be worked out with global players, Jain, who was recently elected as the President of World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), said.
 
"Ultimately the business and finance models will depend on the single governing factor--the unit energy cost which needs to be competitive," Jain added.
   
Incidentally, a Mumbai based private mining and engineering company has shown interest in acquiring a uranium mine in Africa.
 
The city-based company announced in August that it had secured a permit giving it uranium exploration and mining rights over 3000 sq km in the Arlit region of Niger in Africa.

However, Niger does not come under the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG). 

The indigenous programme will progress to 20 GW by the year 2020. But a faster growth up to 40 GW will be possible if the new initiatives take shape and global suppliers are able to participate in the programme during the same period, Jain said at the WANO meeting held in US.
    
India has a proposal for developing new nuclear sites having six to eight Light Water Reactors each and a number of suitable coastal sites have been identified and recommended for government acquisition, which is to be identified after approval from the government, he said.
   
In his recent speech at the WANO biannual meet in US, Jain said that with the nuclear renaissance in the anvil, the responsibility of WANO will also be increasing several folds.
   
Many countries are planning for large nuclear power programme in the next few decades. There is a projection that about 100 reactors are going to be ordered around the globe in the next ten years.
   
By the present estimates, the per Megawat cost of most of the reactors is in the order of USD two million which is higher as compared to Indian standards of about USD 1.2 million. "The unit cost needs to be comparable to be prevalent rates in the country for it to be viable," he said.
   
He told the nuclear operators community that India has followed the Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors path and developed core strength. "We are not minnows as far as Light Water Reactors are concerned. We have 38 years of operating and managing Boiling light water reactors in Tarapur and recent experience of constructing two units of Russian plants of 1000 MW each LWRs in Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu."
   
In his presidential address after his election in September, Jain had said that the most challenging thing for WANO was the issues related to the ageing workforce, ageing reactors, global increase in the fleet of nuclear power plants and probably, the hesitation of younger generation to embracethis technology as a profession.
   
With increased turnover of work force, the invaluable tacit knowledge, build up through years of experience, is steadily being lost, he said.
   
"Therefore, it is absolutely essential for us to put our thinking caps and evolve methods to tackle these serious issues," he said.
   
Talking about the WANO biennial meeting, he said it is a critical meeting as the operators of the highest rank take stock of achievement of WANO and take up issues on thrust areas.
   
"India has gained a lot since WANO came into existence (earlier we were working in isolation) as it helps in benchmarking our performance," he said.

The operating plants are in three tiers and India falls in the upper quartile of the operating plants.
   
India has provided operators as resource persons for peer review in several countries and WANO believes in voluntary peer review. "We have trained 10 persons as resource persons for WANO", he added.

He also said WANO should not limit itself to consultative role but support those countries which are newly acquiring plants.

India will host the next binennial meeting of WANO at New Delhi in 2010, Jain said.