atw 2017-06

atw Vol. 62 (2017) | 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 2017.
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 2017 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