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DAE keen to speed up construction of reactor

By R. Prasad

CHENNAI FEB. 22. The Department of Atomic Energy is looking at bringing down the construction time of the 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) from seven to five years. The PFBR is to come up at Kalpakkam.

There are eight nuclear reactors that are being constructed in the country now. "This is the largest number in the world," said Anil Kakodkar, Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy. "And to realise this goal a fair amount of speed is necessary." Faster implementation is the motto of the DAE. "We would push the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research to reduce the construction time from seven to five years," he said.

The rationale for achieving speedy construction is simple. The PFBR project is estimated to cost Rs. 2,800 crores. At 10 per cent interest rate, the savings by way of advancing the completion time by even one month would work out to Rs. 20-25 crores. "That is huge money. And if we are able to complete it by five years and not seven years as earlier planned, the savings would be substantial." The savings in turn would not only reduce the project cost but also indirectly affect the cost of power produced and in turn the cost to the end consumer.

The Government is not averse to sourcing funds at lower interest rates by looking beyond Indian shores. "But who would like to fund a nuclear project which has a long gestation period. Profitability is the core issue and anybody funding a project would look into it," he said. Add to this is the yet-to-be-commercially-proven fast breeder reactor technology factor. However, he did not rule out the possibility of India getting low interest funds at a later stage when the technology is proven. Such funds would only be used to build new projects, he indicated.

He stressed the need to increase the involvement of national institutions and other scientific centres to carry out research and development. His reasoning was simple — why do R & D at DAE when the same can be carried out at these institutions. Though outsourcing of R & D is already happening, Dr. Kakodkar wants the percentage to go up though outsourcing it completely is not the goal. This is seen as one way of allowing the DAE to concentrate on larger issues.

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