UP demands expansion of Narora nuclear plant after 123 agreement

Lucknow, Aug 8 (UNI) After the historic 123 Agreement with United States on nuclear fuel, Uttar Pradesh government has urged the Centre to go for a major expansion of the Narora nuclear power plant in the state.

The UP government has proposed expansion of additional 1,400 megawatt at the Narora nuclear plant which is presently generating 440 megawatt of power.

A formal proposal to this effect will be presented before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he visits here later this month to review the agriculture growth rate in the state.

Highly-placed official sources told UNI here today that a proposal for expansion of the Narora nuclear power plant has been made to the Centre with suggesting installation of two 700 MW units in addition to the existing 440 MW.

Sources said as after the historic 123 Agreement there would be no shortage of fuel for the new unit, hence the project should not be delayed further.

'' Expansion of the Narora nuclear plant would strengthen the Northern power grid with UP receiving 10 per cent of the generated electricity'', sources added.

The Narora Atomic Power Station (NAPS) is a unit of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) situated in the Bulandshahr district of UP. It generates 440 KW of nuclear power daily and feeds it to the Northern Power Grid.

The entire operation of power generation at Narora is silent and eco-friendly. But for its massive chimneys, reactors and power lines, the existence of the complex could have remained unnoticed.

Narora is the fourth atomic power station in the country. Its foundation was laid on January 4, 1974. The nuclear power plants that have been commissioned in India earlier were Tarapur (Maharashtra) Rawatbhata (Rajasthan) and Kalpakkam (Tamilnadu). The first unit of Narora went critical on March 12, 1989 while the second one achieved this distinction on October 24, 1991. The commercial production of power from the first unit of NAPS started on January 1, 1991. The second unit began its output on June 30, 1992.

Recently, NAPS achieved a feat with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) presented it the ISO-14001 certification for its excellent track record in environmental safety. The plant conformed to the highest norms of safety as per the international standards.

India is the first country to enact legislation to provide for the protection and improvement of environment in its constitution.

NAPS follows the guidelines set by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board. It maintains and develops a green belt all around the complex and provides awareness among workers on environment safety besides improving their competence level.

Nuclear power is an option compared to thermal and hydel energy.

It is clean and green power and unlike a thermal power plant a nuclear reactor does not cause global warming. The wastage in any nuclear plant is negligible compared to a thermal power plant and it does not produce green houses gases.

UNI