India capable of exporting nuclear power technology

26 February 2007

In fact, at least two South Asian countries have approached the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) to develop plants for them.

"The plant will go commercial by the end of March as per schedule. There will not be any delay in integrating the commercial power to the southern grid as the last consignment of critical turbine components from Ukraine is arriving on time," S K Jain, chairman and managing director of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd, (NPCIL), said.

The plant, located at Kaiga in Karnataka and India's 17th nuclear power unit, which was facing delays due to non-arrival of some critical components from Ukraine, is now well on schedule as the parts have arrived.

The components, shipped from Ukraine, were held up at Milan Port in Italy. "Thanks to joint efforts made by the Union ministry of shipping, the Shipping Corporation of India, and the agent, the consignment is being air-lifted to Mumbai in spite of incurring extra cost," Jain said.

"Although 99.9 per cent of the components had arrived, we found trans-chart difficulties for the last part of the consignment," the NPCIL chief said.

Jain said NPCIL would construct eight 700 MW units and ten 1,000 MW units in the next five years.