India's nuclear power plants have been working at about half their capacity of 4,000 mw due to shortage of the fuel.
"India is also exploring the possibilities of importing uranium," he said. He hinted that the sourcing process would ease if the civil nuclear cooperation programme with the US comes off.
The government was also looking at using thorium, a non-fusile material, as a long term energy source.
The slow process in opening new uranium mines has resulted in a mismatch of demand and supply, he said adding the Uranium Corporation of India would shortly construct a mine and a mill at Tummalapalli village in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh and would have a capacity of 15,000 tonne per annum. It was also looking at Meghalaya, Rajasthan and Karnataka for construction of mines and mills.
Meanwhile, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) is working on pre-project activities on four 700 MW nuclear power plants to augment the capacity. ``The construction would start after ensuring fuel linkages,'' Kakodkar said adding that there is a provision of four more project of similar capacity. `` With all these in place, the installed capacity would touch 10,000 MW,'' he said adding that it would take about five years for all these to materialise.
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Kakodakar was in the city to participate in the Nuclear Fuel Complex Day celebrations.
India had the capability of supplying heavy water, a controlled commodity, to other countries. It has already supplied significant quantity of it to the US, he said.
On the prototype fast breeder reactor, the AEC chairman said that the first such reactor would start working in 2010-11. This apart, four more fast breeder reactors would be set up in the country by 2020 to target 20,000 MW production. ``Nuclear fuel would not replace fossil fuels completely but would add to the capacity,'' he said stressing the role of research and development for effective use of energy resources.
Not commenting on how the proposed nuclear deal would shape up due to changing political equations in the US (and also the ensuing general elections in India next year), he said the three-stage nuclear prgramme that India was taking up for enhancing capacity were independent of the deal.
On the Koodankulam nuclear plant in Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu, he said the construction was behind schedule. The second unit would come up only after six months after the first one was ready, said Kakodkar.