Russian collaboration boosts Indian nuclear vision

INDIA - Despite community and political opposition, the Indian government approved plans for the Haripur Nuclear Power Station in January and has given Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited NPCIL the go-ahead to begin construction on the power station.

NPCIL is a government-owned utility company administered by India's Department of Atomic Energy and is the only utility company to utilize nuclear sources. The Haripur station will be located in Bhubaneswar, the second-largest city in the Indian state of Orissa, about 1,680 kilometers southeast of New Delhi.

Atomstroyexport, a Russian nuclear power company belonging to Atomenergoprom, will perform construction on the project, which is scheduled to begin this November. After detailed design is concluded, Atomstroyexport will begin construction of the new $2.5 billion power station and will be in charge of installing two Russian VVER pressurized water reactors to drive two 1,000-megawatt MW turbine-generators.

Plans for a $2.5 billion expansion of the Haripur Nuclear Power Station are already under way, and NPCIL is currently in the preliminary design phase. Preliminary design is scheduled to be completed by October, after which NPCIL will begin the turnkey selection process, while also searching for specialty contractors from July 2011 to April 2012. While the first two reactors are under construction, construction on an additional two 1,000-MW Russian VVER reactors will begin. When fully completed in 2020, the Haripur Nuclear Power Station will have a production capacity of 4,000 MW.

The Haripur Nuclear Power Station is part of collaborative effort between Russia and India to erect five nuclear power stations, with a total of 12 reactors. This agreement is critical to India's achieving its goal of 35,000 MW of installed nuclear power by 2020 and the country's long-term goal of 60,000 MW of nuclear generation by 2032.