L&T can build higher capacity nuclear plants’

Naik aims to get orders worth Rs. 1,500 crore in this sector
NEW DELHI: Engineering major Larsen and Toubro on Tuesday said it could build nuclear plants capable of producing 3,000-4,000 MW of power every year.
“It is not difficult for us to build 3,000-4,000 MW nuclear plants every year,” company Chairman and Managing Director A. M. Naik told reporters here.
The company had expertise to build 1,000 MW plants and had inked memoranda of understanding with “almost all” companies keen on doing business in the country in the nuclear sector except Areva, he said, adding that L&T was in talks with Canadian nuclear firms to build 1,200 MW reactors.
Mr. Naik said the company had invested about Rs. 5,000 crore in establishing a nuclear shop at Hazira in Gujarat which could undertake all activities related to building an atomic power plant.
The company aimed to get orders worth Rs. 1,500 crore in the nuclear sector annually if it continued to do “piecemeal projects” as it did now.
The nuclear business could be worth Rs. 7,000 crore annually if we were allowed to do projects on a turn-key basis, he said.
“Let me do the whole thing (nuclear plant) and I will deliver it in five years,” Mr. Naik said. He stressed for changing the mode of execution of projects from piecemeal to turn-key.
The company carries out jobs on a component basis and claims to have the capacity to build entire nuclear plants.
In turn-key projects, a developer builds the entire facility and hands over it to the buyer in ready-to-use condition.
L&T manufactures reactor vessels for pressurised heavy water reactors and fast breeder reactors. It has also designed technology and critical equipment and systems for heavy water plants, fuel re-processing plants and plasma reactors.
The company also offers onsite integration and installation of massive structure of reactor main vessel, reactor safety vessel, end shield, calandria, coolant channels assembly and reactivity devices for new and operating plants. — PTI