NPCIL says fuel stock sufficient

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), which operates 17 nuclear power units in the country, has said that it faced no fuel shortages and had achieved 90 per cent plant load factor (PLF) in most of its plants.

The NPCIL, which operates two 540 MWe units at Tarapur, the largest power units in the country, and one 220 MWe unit at Kaiga, said that the units were constructed and commissioned in the shortest possible period.

The NPCIL said that its performance, both in constructing plants and running them, was so good that the uranium production from mines could not keep up with its demand.

Hence there was a "temporary mismatch between demand and supply of uranium from the operational mines".

The release says the Department of Atomic Energy has already undertaken several measures in this context, including opening up of new mines and setting up of new processing plants.

The new mines at Banduhurang and Turamdih and the processing mill at Turamdih have been commissioned, and would add to the uranium production soon.

"With this, we expect the plant load factor of nuclear power plants to go up in a few week's time," the release says. As this is going to be a public sector unit, the first to be tasked with consolidating the gains of the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Agreement, it says it is ready with its contribution to the country's energy needs.