The Hindu : Construction in six months on zirconium sponge plant

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 22, 2002

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Construction in six months on zirconium sponge plant

By R. Prasad

CHENNAI SEPT. 21. Construction of the first of the three-module facility to manufacture zirconium sponge will begin in six months at Palaykayal near Tuticorin.

A detailed project report has been submitted to the Atomic Energy Commission. The Commission is expected to take up the issue in its next meeting. Construction will begin once the Cabinet cleared the proposal. The facility, to come up in 1,200 acres, is already taking shape. Land has been acquired and fenced, the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) Hyderabad, C. Ganguly, told The Hindu .

Zirconium sponge manufactured at NFC II at Palaykayal will be taken to Hyderabad to be alloyed with tin, iron and chromium for making zircaloy. Zircaloy is used to manufacture core structural material used in water-cooled nuclear reactors.

The NFC II is expected to be ready for commissioning within three-and-a-half years. This would be the first facility of the NFC outside Hyderabad. Each module would have the capacity to manufacture 500 tonnes of zirconium oxide and 250 tonnes of zirconium sponge.

The cost of the first module would be around Rs. 220 crores. The second module of NFC II would be ready for commissioning by 2012. With that the total zirconium sponge manufacturing capacity at Palaykayal would go up to 500 tonnes.

The NFC II facility will be in addition to a new zirconium sponge plant coming up at NFC Hyderabad. The new facility, to be ready by 2003-end, will have a capacity of 250 tonnes, and would cost about Rs.10 crores. The low cost of the facility is due to availability of basic infrastructure.

The new zirconium sponge plant at (NFC) Hyderabad and NFC II at Palaykayal will be used to manufacture only sponge. The NFC will convert the sponge into zircaloy and then ingots, before making fuel assembly materials. Malavalakurchi in Tamil Nadu has a huge reserve of zircon sand — the raw material for manufacturing zirconium sponge. Besides all major chemicals required are available locally. "The Tamil Nadu Government has been very co-operative too," Dr. Ganguly pointed out.

The need for augmenting zirconium sponge capacity has become imperative to meet the requirements of six new water-cooled reactors coming up. "We have perfected the indigenously developed technology to produce zircaloy during the last 30 years. And now it is just a question of expanding the capacity to meet the demand," he said.

The additional capacity would not only go in meeting the domestic need, but also help making India a serious exporter of sub-assembly materials made from zircaloy. "Scaling up the capacity in turn will help bring down the price of the end product," Dr. Ganguly stressed.

India is one of the few countries that have mastered the technology to manufacture zircaloy. The others being the U.S., France and Russia. The NFC had exported zircaloy to South Korea in 1997-99 and earned Rs. 2.5 crores. This one-time export had helped NFC become "vendor qualified". "This is very important if we are looking at exports seriously and today no business should be started keeping only the domestic market in mind," he added.

Availability of raw materials, unlike in the case of oil or coal, is not an issue as India has huge reserves of zircon sand.

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