India constructs crucial component for Fast Breeder Reactors

Hyderabad: In a significant first for Indian industry, Hyderabad-based MTAR Technologies has successfully fabricated a critical component for Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs). The indigenous manufacture of a Grid Plate, which supports and accurately positions core sub-assemblies in a reactor, constructed at a substantially low cost, has been described by Dr Anil Kakodkar, chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, as a "a magnificent technological achievement".

MTAR Technologies, a manufacturer of precision engineering equipment for strategic sectors, managed to construct the Grid Plate, at a substantially low cost of Rs30 crore against the Rs47 crore estimated for the construction of a prototype.

Designed and developed by the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam, the Grid Plate weighs about 80 tonnes. MTAR constructed a large workshop and special facilities for the Plate's construction in association with OMPLAS, Chennai, which provided specific technology inputs.

Dr Baldev Raj, director IGCAR, said "The fabrication of the GridPlate and other key components and facilities has taken us closer to the realisation of the programme by 2010." He also said that more than 100 industries were involved in the FBR programme.

Speaking at the handing over function at the factory premises, Dr Kakodkar said that India will only be the second country with such a capability when the PFBR goes critical in a couple of years.

MTAR also manufactures the Vikas Engine, which powers the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.

In his address, SK Jain, chairman and managing director of Nuclear Power Corporation and BHAVINI, said "India has the potential to emerge as a major supply hub for nuclear components".

Meanwhile, Akhil Gupta of Blackstone, a global private equity firm, which has invested upto Rs255 crore in MTAR, said, "The future of MTAR is far bigger now after the Indo-US civil nuclear deal has been signed".