Saturday, February 21, 2009

No crisis, enough nuke fuel for 40 years: CAG



NEW DELHI: In what could trigger a fresh war of words between the government and the Left parties, an independent official survey on the country's estimated uranium reserves has revealed that the nuclear fuel stocks are enough to meet India's fuel supply for the next 40 years.

An audit on the management of fuel for Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) — conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor General in light of reports of serious fuel crisis — has revealed that India has enough uranium reserves which were left unexplored due to "significant deficiencies in the strategic planning" by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).

The report says that as of September 2007, the estimated uranium reserves were about 1,07,268 tonnes while the fuel requirement of the 10,000 MWe PHWR programme, as planned by DAE till 2020, required around 1,01,600 tonnes for the entire lifespan of 40 years of these plants.



The report has pulled up authorities in DAE for their laxity in exploring identified mineral blocks. Most of these identified uranium blocks were left unexplored despite being handed over to the department concerned for mining 10 to 38 years ago, says the CAG report which was tabled in Parliament on Friday.


The CAG findings, incidentally, are on the lines of what the Left parties had been arguing all along in their opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal.

CPM general secretary Prakash Karat had in his objection to the nuke deal alleged that the nuclear fuel crisis as projected by the UPA government was artificial and deliberately done to enter into a pact with the US.

The Left leaders had then sought explanation on the initial plan of the DAE's programme for generating 10,000 MWe with indigenous fuel supply and what led to the shortage when the country was still producing below 5,000 MW.

The CAG review has delved deep into the cause and found that mines in Meghalaya, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka at Domiasiat, Lambapur and Gogi respectively, had better grade deposits and were expected to deliver significant quantity of yellow cake per annum. However, there were "significant delays in opening of these mines which had adversely affected the timely supply of nuclear fuel to the PHWRs".

"Due to constraints in fuel supplies, the average capacity factors of nuclear plants were consistently brought down to 50% during 2003-08. The denial of the plants running at full capacity resulted in an estimated loss of about Rs 6,000 crore," the report says.



-TOI


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Those who have power to change things don't bother to;and those who bother don't have the power to do so .................but I think It is a very thin line that divides the two and I am walking on that.Well is pure human nature to think that "I am the best and my ideas unquestionable"...it is human EGO and sometimes it is very important for survival of the fittest and too much of it may attract trouble.Well here you decide where do I stand.I say what I feel.

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