India can build nuclear aircraft carrier, warships: Kakodkar

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.