SCHWER WEGZUDENKEN als Ihr Partner für Schwergutlogistik und KTA-Hubgerüste August Alborn GmbH & Co. KG Planetenfeldstraße 102 44379 Dortmund-Marten Telefon +49(0)231 961080-0 Telefax +49(0)231 961080-9 alborn@alborn.de www.alborn.de WWW.ALBORN.DE
<strong>atw</strong> Vol. 62 (<strong>2017</strong>) | Issue 6 ı June India Goes Nuclear Dear reader, India is a country of diversity and with its 1.3 billion citizens India is after China not only second most populous country in the world but also the most populous democracy in the world. This reflects the great responsibility for the countries’ politics, to create social conditions, which further maintain and strengthen the democracy. Economic growth is thereby unquestionably one of the most important components in order to expand social services and to create quality of life. Also due to this India’s economy grew in the past 10 years on average by 11 % per year, even in times of a global financial crisis as of 2007. With a view to the energy supply India is today, after China and the USA the third largest energy consumer in the world. Despite of extensive available energy resources, India developed to an important energy importer of fossil fuels. With a share of over 75 % of the energy generation the importance of coal for the energy and electricity supply is very dominant. In the year 2013 around 692 million tons of coal were used of which 159 million tons were imported. The 22 nuclear power plants with a gross capacity of 6,780 MW have a share of around 2.2 % of the country’s total power generation capacity of 303,071 MWe and of the generation of around 3.5 % through the production of 35 gigawatt hours in 2016. Due to the combination of a today comparatively low per capita rate of electricity consumption in the amount of 1,000 kWh per inhabitants and aspired growth, as well as the need to provide electricity to the approximately 240 million persons in India which do not have any access to electricity today, it will certainly further increase. Until the 2020s a doubling is expected. It should be noted for India, that the agriculture proportion on the energy consumption – especially for the irrigation of fields- up to one third, clarifies that a secure supply of energy is not a question of comfort put also of a primary care. This poses the country and its decision makers to great challenges. In order to manage this situation no options are excluded. Thus, growth for all energy carriers in India is expected and aimed for in the upcoming years until the middle of the 2020s with strong differing degrees of the single energy carrier. Ambitioned is the extension of renewables, with a target setting especially for wind of +60,000 MW and photovoltaic of +100,000 MW, which corresponds in total to a fourfold increase. But also the coal-fired generation will further increase. ....and nuclear energy? Research and development of nuclear energy in India have a long national tradition. Today’s Bhaba Atomic Research Centre near Mumbai was established in the 1950s. A first light water reactor or rather heavy water moderated pressurised water reactor of the Canadian type CANDU was put in operation in 1969 or rather 1972 at the sites Tarapur and Rajasthan. The advancement of nuclear energy within the international network was then inhibited, as India, being a nuclear power, had not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. India’s nuclear economy depended thus on its own development or rather further development of the expansion. Through standardising the heavy water reactor technology the possibility was given to establish an own productive reactor type and to commission until today 18 plants. The long term perspective of nuclear energy will be underlined with the prototype establishment of a fast sodium-cooled 500-MW-reactor at the site Kalpakkam, whose commissioning is planned for autumn <strong>2017</strong>. Additionally the Indian Department for Atomic Energy just recently communicated, that two further 600-MW-breeder reactor shall follow in Kalpakkam With the end of the East-West conflict the relationships of many countries with India changed in the matter of nuclear technology. Through cooperation with Russia two WWER-reactors with each 1,000 MW of (output) were established and put in operation at the site Kudankulam as of the year 2002. An agreement with the Nuclear Suppliers Group in 2008 opened up the path for a couple bilateral agreements for the expansion of nuclear energy. Miscellaneous new-build projects are mentioned and negotiated repeatedly since this year in order to achieve the expansion target of +10 % capacity per year until the year 2025. India is getting serious also in the matter of nuclear energy. The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Mori announced in May <strong>2017</strong> as a first step for the government the initiation of a national nuclear energy expansion program. This programme shall bring a strong push to entire Indian economy: 10 nuclear power plant projects on the basis of the Indian heavy water reactor technology with an overall performance of 6,700 MW* – the same amount as the currently operated ones – shall be accommodated within the next 5 years. The full investment is mentioned with 11 b. $. Just in the country’s nuclear industry 33,400 new, qualified jobs shall be generated in this manner. With the experience made from the establishment and commissioning of today’s operating heavy water reactors and through the standardisation of 10 new plants, the „fleet construction program“ shall generate synergies through an „Economy by Number“ and thus electrically enable the aspired and comparatively low investment costs of 1,650 $ per installed kilowatt. India’s paths of a future energy supply are diverse and include the path of using nuclear energy; step by step and under the target set of further 80,000 MW until the end of the 2020’s. Christopher Weßelmann – Editor in Chief – * At the power generation 1 MW of installed power output corresponds due to a higher availability approximately to 4 MW of installed wind power and 8 MW of installed photovoltaic capacity – the often underestimated difference between labour and performance 367 EDITORIAL Editorial India Goes Nuclear
Change language