With international technology being installed at the Kakrapar Atomic Power Station near Surat, the government is now expanding its capacity by adding two nuclear reactors of 700 Mw each. The power project in Kakrapar already houses two nuclear reactors of 220 Mw each.
With the additional capacity, wherein thermal heavy water technology will be used, the total capacity will be 1,840 Mw, said Prabhat Kumar, project designer of Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidhyut Nigam Ltd. (Bhavini), a joint venture between Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. and IGCAR, at a inaugural ceremony of two-year post graduate programme in nuclear engineering at Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU)'s School of Nuclear Energy.
"The additional capacity of 1,400 Mw is expected to commission in next five years. These nuclear reactors are based on thermal heavy water technology which is going to give substantial boost the power requirement in the state of Gujarat," Kumar added.
Talking about the manpower requirements in the industry, Kumar said, "India is going to emerge as a major supplier of manpower in nuclear energy around the world. India's only limitation is availability of uranium which is sufficient only for 10,000 Mw for next 30 years. However, with the agreement, the availability issue will also be solved soon."
The newly launched programme at the School of Nuclear Energy of PDPU will offer majors in areas like nuclear reactor chemistry and metallurgy, nuclear reactor theory, types of reactors and plant engineering, design and operation safety, project life cycle of a nuclear power plant, economics of nuclear power plant and environmental considerations.
"The post graduate programme, which has begun with a batch of over 20 students, will aim to cater to the growing need of human resource in nuclear power. More than 1,00,000 professionals are required in nuclear power industry," said Naresh Jotwani, project director, School of Nuclear Energy.