Construction Industry News
The first pour of concrete (FPC) marks the start of nuclear reactor construction from the pre-project phase, including excavation activities at the project site.
“The FPC of Kaiga units 5&6 is expected in 2023; FPC of Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Praiyonjan units 3 & 4 and Mahi Banswara Rajasthan Atomic Power Projects units 1 to 4 is expected in 2024; and those of Chutka Madhya Pradesh Atomic Power Project units 1 and 2 by 2025,” Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) officials told the parliamentary panel on science and technology.
The center had approved the construction of 10 domestically developed pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWR) of 700 MW each in June 2017. The ten PHWRs will be built at a cost of 1.05 lakh crore.
It was the first time that the government authorized the construction of 10 nuclear reactors at once with the aim of reducing costs and speeding up construction time.
Bulk purchases were underway for the fleet mode projects with purchase orders for steam generator forgings, stainless steel 304L grid tubes and plates for end shields, pressure regulator forgings, vent condenser forgings, Incoloy-800 tubes for 40 steam generators, reactor heads, DAE officials said. Turbine island engineering, procurement and construction package has been awarded for Gorakhpur units three and four and Kaiga units five and six, it added.
In fleet mode, a nuclear power plant is expected to be built over a five-year period from the first concrete pour.
Currently, India operates 22 reactors with a total capacity of 6,780 MW in operation. A 700 MW reactor at Kakrapar in Gujarat was connected to the grid on January 10 last year, but has yet to be deployed commercially.
The PHWRs, which use natural uranium as a fuel and heavy water as a moderator, have become the mainstay of India's nuclear power program.
India's first pair of PHWRs of 220 MW each were set up in the 1960s at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan with Canadian support. The second reactor had to be built with key domestic components as Canada withdrew its support after India's peaceful nuclear tests in 1974.
As many as 14 PHWRS of 220 MW each with standardized design and enhanced safety measures were built by India over the years. Indian engineers further improvised the design to increase the power generation capacity to 540 MWe, and two such reactors were made operational at Tarapur in Maharashtra.
Further optimizations have been made to upgrade the capacity to 700 MWe.
