India Starts Nuclear Reactor After Lengthy Delays
Updated Oct. 22, 2013 6:12 a.m. ET
The commissioning of the reactor will ease India's crippling power shortages and help bridge a power-supply gap estimated at up to 9% of total demand. It comes at a time India is trying to close a reactor deal with Russia as part of a planned massive buildup of its nuclear sector aimed at reducing its heavy reliance on coal and imported fossil fuels.
A test supply of 170 megawatts of electricity was sent to the southern grid early Tuesday and full commercial generation from the entire 1000 megawatt unit may happen by end of the year, said Nalinish Nagaich, a spokesman for state-run Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd.
Work on powering up the reactor gathered pace after the Supreme Court in May dismissed petitions challenging the project. A second reactor, also with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts will likely be brought into service by June 2014, said an official with the company, who declined to be identified by name.
India plans to raise its nuclear power capacity to 63,000 megawatts over the next 20 years, from 4,700 megawatts now. The last time it commissioned a nuclear reactor was in January 2011.
It is also trying to increase output of wind, solar energy and biofuels as it seeks to diversify from coal- and gas-based power generation.
Indian and Russian officials have been in talks for the supply of equipment for the third and fourth reactor and have drafted the broad outlines of an agreement, according to Indian government officials.
But the two sides stopped short of signing a widely-expected deal during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Moscow this week because of Russia's concerns about an Indian law that fixes compensation liability on an equipment supplier in the event of an accident.
"We expect to sign this shortly. It will probably be on similar lines to the one we have for the first two reactors at Kudankulam, with some changes in clauses," said a Nuclear Power Corp. executive.
The law that makes suppliers of nuclear power equipment to India liable in case of an accident applies only if there are manufacturing defects, but equipment companies wanting to sell to India have still been jittery about the legal clause as the standard practice is to hold plant operators liable.
Despite reservations, negotiations with global nuclear equipment suppliers now seem to be advancing.
Nuclear Power Corp. of India Ltd. signed a preliminary contract with U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric Co. late last month to purchase nuclear reactors, which covers preliminary regulatory and site-development work for a planned complex in the western state of Gujarat.
The state-run Indian company is also in advanced talks with Areva SA, of France for purchase of equipment for a power project in the western state of Maharashtra, said a senior government official who works at the Department of Atomic Energy.
But some say that nuclear power won't substantially cut down a gap in energy demand and supply.
"Nuclear power has its own set of problems. The problem of social acceptability is a major challenge besides that of land and capital," said Lydia Powell, Senior Fellow at Observer Research Foundation, a private think tank.
"It can't solve the problem of your main fuel source that is coal. Local coal is the only solution and not nuclear," she added, referring to India's huge coal reserves.
Write to Biman Mukherji at biman.mekherji@wsj.com and Saurabh Chaturvedi at saurabh.chaturvedi@wsj.com
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