Fresh uranium imports, made possible by the nuclear cooperation agreements India signed with different countries, have acted as a saviour for the domestic nuclear power generation programme. The capacity utilisation of domestic nuclear power plants, which had faltered in the years prior to the nuclear deals due to lack of availability of fuel, has now shot up to as much as 70 per cent.
The plant load factor (PLF) of the country’s nuclear power plants, which was over 80 per cent in 2000-01, had dipped to as low as 40-50 per cent in 2006-07 just before the Indo-US nuclear deal was finalised due to lack of domestic uranium to fuel the reactors.
It was only after the government entered into nuclear fuel import agreements with firms from three countries following the Indo-US deal and the India-specific waiver from the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) that followed in September 2008, that the supply of uranium to fuel the domestic reactors could be ramped up.
India has an installed nuclear power generation capacity of 4,560 Mw, of which 3,120 Mw is currently operational. Notably, even today, it is only the reactors fuelled by imported uranium which are running at 100 per cent capacity utilisation. These reactors account for over 30 per cent of the total installed capacity. Reactors fuelled by domestic uranium, which account for the rest of the 70 per cent capacity, are still running at less than 70 per cent of their designed capacity.
Barely two years after India received the NSG waiver for nuclear commerce with the rest of the world, the country has already shipped over 860 million tonnes (mt) of uranium from France, Russia and Kazakhstan, the three countries with whom India has signed uranium import agreements.
The improved capacity utilization of nuclear plants has started pushing up the perennial low power supply, too. Electricity generation from the country’s 17 nuclear power plants in the 2009-10 financial year was recorded at 18.6 billion units, a 25 per cent jump compared to the generation in the previous financial year, according to the latest data obtained from the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).
The 868 mt of nuclear fuel imported by India so far includes 300 mt uranium ore concentrate each shipped from Areva of France and NAC Kazatomprom of Kazakhstan. In addition, 58 mt of enriched uranium-dioxide pellets and 210 mt of natural uranium oxide pellets have been imported from TVEL Corporation, Russia.
With Kazatomprom the country has signed an agreement for supply of 2,100 mt natural uranium ore concentrate over six years in quantities between 300 and 400 mt annually. According to another agreement, 2000 mt of natural uranium-oxide pellets in quantities between 200 and 400 mt annually have to be imported from TVEL Corporation, Russia.
This heavy dependence on imported fuel and limited availability of domestic uranium due to strong opposition to mining projects has left the government concerned. Referring to the current opposition in Meghalaya over uranium mining, a senior official from the DAE said: “There are major problems in the availability of domestic uranium. Everybody wants the fruit of technology but they do not want mining to take place in their state. We have modest reserves of uranium in our country, but are not allowed to mine even those.”
The Union government had admitted to the difficulties in setting up more than 10,000 Mw of domestic nuclear power capacity based on “known indigenous uranium resources” for the first time in the 11th Plan document published in 2008. It had stated “constraints in nuclear fuel availability is the main reason for lower PLF.” Since then, however, there have been no clear cut indications of the impact of the civil nuclear agreements on uranium availability for domestic reactors.
Fuel shortage had forced the state-run Nuclear Power Corporation to delay commissioning of two units (5 and 6) at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station. The company had also admitted to difficulties in raising production levels at the Madras Atomic Power Station owing to fuel constraints in 2008.
