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‘Kadapa basin a treasure trove of uranium’

MAJOR INITIATIVE: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy unveils the foundation stone for the uranium mining and processing plant at Thummalapalle in Kadapa district on Tuesday.

KADAPA: The Kadapa basin in Andhra Pradesh is a treasure trove with large deposits of uranium, and so far 28,000 tonnes had been identified, according to Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Prithviraj Chauhan.

Of the one lakh tonne already established, 46,000 tonnes were in Jharkhand, he said in a message read out by V.R. Raja, Additional Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, at the foundation-laying function for a Rs.1,106-crore uranium mining and processing plant at Thummalapalle in Vemula mandal, 75 km from here, on Tuesday.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who laid the foundation stone, said Pulivendula has secured a significant place in the Indian map with the Thummalapalle plant. He assured employment to a member of each of the 400 displaced families in five villages in the Vemula mandal.

Mr. Chauhan said the economy was poised to grow at a rate of nine per cent annually. To sustain this, over 11 per cent annual energy growth was planned.

Founder of the country’s atomic energy programme Homi J. Bhabha had mooted a three-stage nuclear power programme for achieving energy security over the next 25-30 years.

India has modest uranium resources and vast resources of thorium. Use of natural uranium in pressurised heavy water reactors to produce electricity was mastered in the last five decades, Mr. Chauhan said.

India had entered the second stage with the ongoing construction of 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam. The vast thorium resources could be used in the third stage.

CMD of Uranium Corporation of India Ramendra Gupta said the corporation was expanding its operations to Andhra Pradesh, after its 40-year operations in East Singhbhum in Jharkhand.

It would establish the plant on international standards and give priority to safeguarding the environment, public health and safety norms.

Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Srikumar Banerjee said the Thummalapalle site could supply 15,000 tonnes of uranium U308 and uranium for producing electricity. Besides power, atomic energy was used for applications such as agriculture, healthcare, radiation mutation of oilseeds and pulses, processing foods and mangoes for export and radio isotopes for treatment of cancer.

Kadapa MP Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy sought development of the area and its people.

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