Govt hopes to up nuclear power capacity from 4000 to 7250 MWe

New Delhi, May 11 (UNI) The government is hopeful of increasing the country's nuclear power capacity from about 4,000 Mega Watt electrical (MWe) to over 7,250 MWe units by the end of the Eleventh Five-Year-Plan period.

At present, the total nuclear power generation capacity in the country is 4,120 MWe, which is about three per cent of the total installed capacity while in the US, Japan and Germany it was 19, 29 and 31 per cent respectively, official sources said today.

There were proposals to construct eight indigenously designed nuclear reactors in the country under the Eleventh Five-Year-Plan that would generate 700 Mega Watt electrical (MWe) units of power each.

In an effort to increase the country's nuclear power capacity, Department of Atomic Energy also planned to set up more reactors beyond the Eleventh Plan.

In addition to the development of indigenous programme, the government had undertaken initiatives for opening up of international civil nuclear cooperation. Further capacity addition through imports depended on the developments in international civil nuclear cooperation.

At present there were six nuclear power stations in the country that had 17 nuclear reactors while six nuclear power reactors with a total capacity of 3,160 MWe were under construction.

UNI