NPCIL admits temporary mismatch of uranium supplies

Mumbai, Aug 20 (UNI) There was a temporary mismatch between demand and supply of uranium from the operational mines to its plants due to excessive Plant Load Factor (PLF), admitted the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) here today.

Reacting to media reports on fuel availability, the premier nuclear body, in a statement, said ''Unprecedented excellent perfomance, both in achieving very high PLF as well as speedy construction of nuclear power plant units, has resulted in the temporary mismatch.'' Further, the overall average PLF of the nuclear power plants in the country, had improved gradually to 90 per cent and above during the last decade. Some of the plants have been operational at nearly 100 per cent PLF.

The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), the apex body overlooking India's nuclear operations, has already undertaken several measures in this context, including the opening up of new mines and setting up of new processing plants.

The new mines at Banduhurang and Turamdih and processing mills at Turamdih have been commissioned, and would add to the uranium production in a short time. With this, the DAE also expects the plant load factor of nuclear power plants to go up in a few weeks.

In parallel, action to open up new mines in other parts of the country is already in hand to meet the uranium production capacity to feed the additional requirements beyond the existing production capacity, the statement added.

At present, NPCIL operates 17 nuclear power units in the country.

Out of these, two 540 MWe units at Tarapur, the largest power units in the country, and one 220 MWe unit at Kaiga have been added during the last two years.

UNI