India expects to add four nuclear power units

Tue, Feb 3 08:27 PM
New Delhi, Feb 3 (IANS) India hopes to start four nuclear power plants, which could add 1,660 MW capacity to the national energy basket by the end of this year.
'We expect three units to come on stream this year,' Atomic Energy Commission chief Anil Kakodkar told reporters on the sidelines of an awards ceremony here.
'Two units in Rajasthan and one in Kaiga and later this year one of the Kudankulam units may also come upstream,' said Kakodkar.
The Kudankulam plant in Tamil Nadu is being built with Russia's assistance and is seen as a symbol of Indo-Russian civil nuclear cooperation.
'Nuclear energy constitutes only three percent of the total electricity generated in the country. We want to increase it. It is a long process, now the process will be speeded up,' Kakoadkar said while stressing that the India-US nuclear deal will spur up atomic power generation in the country.
Alluding to the India-specific safeguards agreement singed between India and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna Monday, Kakodkar said: 'That was an important step. It is one of the steps in implementing the international civil nuclear cooperation.'
Earlier, Kakodkar, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman G. Madhavan Nair, social activists Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey and Shankar Singh, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C) Director Shekhar Chaudhari and Shiv Sena MP Bhavna Gavali were honoured with the Bharat Asmita National Awards.