India's Largest Nuclear Reactor Commences Commercial Operations

[Ragnar]

Plz share stats if you have ..

It was actually a question. And here in Tamil Nadu there are plenty of Wind farms. How come it is so cheap? Less than 1/3rd of Diesel generated power.

 

[zip]

It was actually a question. And here in Tamil Nadu there are plenty of Wind farms. How come it is so cheap? Less than 1/3rd of Diesel generated power.

I think nuclear plant is more reliable source ..Both are almost equal in economical term ..land required is huge in case of wind mills ..

 

[anant_s]

Personally, I fail to understand why we cannot have a nuclear powerplant in any of the northeastern states. Having 2 small reactors in Assam and improving power distribution in the region will not only make the region power surplus and be able to export power to Myanmar and BD but also encourage more IT/telecom industries to set up base in our region.

I speak on behalf of other states as my state is already well endowed. Though distribution modes need to improve in quality and tech.

there are 2-3 technical reasons for why no N plants have come up in North East states. I'll list them:
1. Seismic Zoning
Almost all of 7 states in NE India lie under what is categorized as Zone 5 of Seismic activity map. This is essentially due to vicinity of Himalayan range which is seismically very active and has a large probability of earth quakes.

Now technically speaking any N plant (reactor in specific) is designed to withstand ground accelerations of upto 0.3g (lower if geography permits). This translates to earthquakes as high as 9.5 on Richter scale, but the cost goes up as you design higher ground acceleration tolerance in structures and supports. ASME Sec III (the basis of design code for Nuclear Pressure vessel), sections NB, NC and ND all ask for loading of seismic component while calculating stress under all conditions.
Simply put, higher are the chances of earth quake in a region, higher will be the cost of setting up a N reactor. This will make an N plant take longer to break even.
2. Availability of Coal in Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal
The states of West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkand have some of the largest coal reserves anywhere.

The mining industry is quite developed and this makes them an attractive location for setting up of Thermal power plants owing to little transportation cost.

AT present day's cost of setting up an N plant vis a vis a Thermal power plant, considering same capacity, the cost of Nuclear power plant and a thermal power plant becomes same if a Thermal power plant is situated at a distance of 800 kms from Coal source or mine. At a greater distance, N power becomes cheaper. (i'm not counting carbon emission cost and carbon credits earned by NPPs).

As a result, in eastern parts of India, primarily it is the coal that is used for power generation.
Here is an interesting study by IIT Kanpur.

3. Water Availability
NPPs require colossal mount of water for cooling needs and this means that even though modern cooling towers are efficient source of discharging low enthalpy heat rejected in condensers, it is far cheaper to have a sea nearby especially if the plant capacity more than 600 MWe.
With only few rivers in NE India, large capacity plants are a little difficult to site.

4. Ample Hydel Power Potential
The entire NE region and Bhutan have a huge potential for Hydel power generation, which is almost free of cost once constructed. As a result a number of projects are coming up in the region.

In fact National grid is concentrating on laying high capacity HVDC lines from Eastern to Northern grid to allow transfer of power.

There are plans to set up one N park in state of West Bengal at Haripur (6x1000 Mwe Light Water Reactors with technical support of Russia) but Mamata Banarjee is a strong opposition for the project. It therefore looks very difficult how under such a condition a lant can be setup when state CM is against the project.

All this said, i firmly believe that NE states (or for that matter any other region) should have access to clean and cheap electricity that will ultimately power development and improve quality of life. People in NE states must get opportunity to work in industries in their home states and progressively reduce reliance on tourism as major revenue earner.

 

[Tshering22]

there are 2-3 technical reasons for why no N plants have come up in North East states. I'll list them:
1. Seismic Zoning
Almost all of 7 states in NE India lie under what is categorized as Zone 5 of Seismic activity map. This is essentially due to vicinity of Himalayan range which is seismically very active and has a large probability of earth quakes.
View attachment 181121
Now technically speaking any N plant (reactor in specific) is designed to withstand ground accelerations of upto 0.3g (lower if geography permits). This translates to earthquakes as high as 9.5 on Richter scale, but the cost goes up as you design higher ground acceleration tolerance in structures and supports. ASME Sec III (the basis of design code for Nuclear Pressure vessel), sections NB, NC and ND all ask for loading of seismic component while calculating stress under all conditions.
Simply put, higher are the chances of earth quake in a region, higher will be the cost of setting up a N reactor. This will make an N plant take longer to break even.
2. Availability of Coal in Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal
The states of West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkand have some of the largest coal reserves anywhere.
View attachment 181123
The mining industry is quite developed and this makes them an attractive location for setting up of Thermal power plants owing to little transportation cost.
View attachment 181122

AT present day's cost of setting up an N plant vis a vis a Thermal power plant, considering same capacity, the cost of Nuclear power plant and a thermal power plant becomes same if a Thermal power plant is situated at a distance of 800 kms from Coal source or mine. At a greater distance, N power becomes cheaper. (i'm not counting carbon emission cost and carbon credits earned by NPPs).
View attachment 181124

As a result, in eastern parts of India, primarily it is the coal that is used for power generation.
Here is an interesting study by IIT Kanpur.

3. Water Availability
NPPs require colossal mount of water for cooling needs and this means that even though modern cooling towers are efficient source of discharging low enthalpy heat rejected in condensers, it is far cheaper to have a sea nearby especially if the plant capacity more than 600 MWe.
With only few rivers in NE India, large capacity plants are a little difficult to site.

4. Ample Hydel Power Potential
The entire NE region and Bhutan have a huge potential for Hydel power generation, which is almost free of cost once constructed. As a result a number of projects are coming up in the region.
View attachment 181125
In fact National grid is concentrating on laying high capacity HVDC lines from Eastern to Northern grid to allow transfer of power.
View attachment 181128

There are plans to set up one N park in state of West Bengal at Haripur (6x1000 Mwe Light Water Reactors with technical support of Russia) but Mamata Banarjee is a strong opposition for the project. It therefore looks very difficult how under such a condition a lant can be setup when state CM is against the project.

All this said, i firmly believe that NE states (or for that matter any other region) should have access to clean and cheap electricity that will ultimately power development and improve quality of life. People in NE states must get opportunity to work in industries in their home states and progressively reduce reliance on tourism as major revenue earner.

Thanks for seismic zoning analysis. But Delhi also sits on a Category 3 region. Not as severe but your analysis reminds me something I read two years ago on it.

I don't understand much scientific technical stuff so will leave it at that.

However, compared to the many other regions in India, states like Assam have faced Mich lessee earthquakes and can be safe for developing at least one power plant.

 

[anant_s]

Thanks for seismic zoning analysis. But Delhi also sits on a Category 3 region. Not as severe but your analysis reminds me something I read two years ago on it.

I don't understand much scientific technical stuff so will leave it at that.

However, compared to the many other regions in India, states like Assam have faced Mich lessee earthquakes and can be safe for developing at least one power plant.

Sir, as i said, Nuclear reactors can be built anywhere even in the most earthquake prone locations, all u need is the build in required safety margins in structural design. A classical example is Japan where almost 57 odd reactors are in operation despite the fact that it is most seismically active zone anywhere in the world. even in India Narora APP (2x220 Mwe), situated 150 kms from Delhi is in high active zone. It is operating safely for last 25 years
The point i'm making is that safer designs cost money and since there are other resources in the area (coal and hydel, as i marked) TPPs and Hydro-electric power plants are cheaper, making N plants a little nonviable economically.
I'm not sure though if there are large TPPs too in NE states or if there are plans to build more.
But yes if we talk about Large Power plants, N power is better option, as the railway network is still little under-developed for large coal hauling for huge boilers in NE states.
PM Modi recently talked about development of NE region as one of his priorities and i hope electricity is on the agenda for the region.

 

[Dr Gupta]

Japan wants you to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Theres is nothing bad in doing that. Since It is the India deal that puts Japan most at risk of compromising its national identity as a champion of nonproliferation and disarmament. So think the ball is in India's camp.

Japan is going to come around because of the military threat of China they will sign the nuclear deal with India with US pressure because the nuclear pie is big business and everyone wants a share of the pie. India is not going to sign the test ban treaty which is biased.

 

[Hindustani78]

Department of Atomic Energy
19-March, 2015 16:21 IST
Nuclear Power installed capacity expected to reach 10,080 MW by 2019
The present nuclear power installed capacity of 5780 MW is expected to reach 10,080 MW by 2019 on progressive completion of the projects under construction/ commissioning.

In respect of projects set up with international technical cooperation, life time fuel supply guarantees are incorporated in the commercial contracts. Accordingly, the life time fuel supply guarantees in respect of the Tarapur Atomic Power Station Unit 1-2 and Kudankulam Atomic Power Project Units 1-4 are a part of the respective agreement/contracts.

This information was given by MoS in the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, PG & Pensions, Dr Jitendra Singh in a reply to an unstarred question in Rajya Sabha today.

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