14 thermal reactors to be put under IAEA guards

New Delhi, May 12: India will place 14 out of its 22 thermal nuclear power reactors under international safeguards between 2006 and 2014, according to the Nuclear Separation Plan mandatory for fruition of the Indo-US Civilian Nuclear Energy cooperation agreement.

This will raise the total installed Thermal Power capacity by MWe under safeguards from the present 19 per cent to 65 per cent by 2014, the Plan claims.

The 'full and complete text of India's (Nuclear) Separation Plan' which gives details of the nuclear installations to be put under international safeguards, was tabled in Parliament yesterday.

While Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachauri presented it in Lok Sabha, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Prithviraj Chavan tabled it in Rajya Sabha.

The Plan was earlier presented to the US on March two during the visit of President George Bush to India.

''India will identify and offer for safeguards 14 thermal power reactors between 2006 and 2014. This will include the four presently safeguarded reactors--TAPS 1 and 2 and RAPS 1 and 2--and KK 1 and 2 that are under construction. Eight other PHWRs, each of a capacity of 220 MWe, will be offered,'' as per the Plan.

India will also permanently shut down the CIRUS reactor in 2010 and will be ready to shifft the fuel core of the APSARA reactor, that was purchased fron France outside BARC, and make the fuel coree available to be placed under safeguards in 2010.

However, India will not accept safeguards on the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactors (PFBR) and the Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR), both at Kalpakkam.

In addition, all future civilian thermal power reactors and civilian breder reactors will be placed under international safeguards and the government retains the right to determine such reactors as civilian.

The Plan says that India is willing to accept safeguards in the campaign mode after 2010 in respect of Tarapur Power Reactor Fuel Reprocessing Plant.

The research facilities that will be declared as civilian are : Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Institute of Plasma Research, Institute of Mathematics Science, Institute of Physics, Tata Memorial Centre, Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology and Harish Chandra Research Institute.

UNI