Four fast breeder reactors are planned to be built in TamilNadu. Two of the four reactors will be at Kalpakkam. There is already a 500MW prototype fast breeder reactor being built at Kalpakkam.
Here is the articleChennai, Jan 30 (IANS) India will design and build four more fast-breeder reactors in Tamil Nadu by 2020, an official said here Tuesday.
The four indigenously designed breeder reactors will be built by the Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (Bhavini), the public sector arm of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), and will be developed by the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), said C.V. Ramalingam, director of reactor operation and maintenance group at IGCAR.
He was speaking at a workshop in a city college on research opportunities with the DAE.
'The first of these four reactors, a 500 MW prototype fast-breeder test reactor, will generate power at per-unit cost of Rs.3.25,' Ramalingam later told reporters.
Bhavini is building a 500 MW power plant at the DAE's Kalpakkam campus, 80 km south of here.
Four power and experimental reactors are already in operation at the campus, including two MAPS reactors, a prototype fast breeder test reactor and Kamini, a mini reactor.
The estimated project cost for the first fast breeder reactor is Rs.34.92 billion and it is expected to go critical by September 2010.
'One year after this reactor is in operation, we are planning two more reactors in Kalpakkam that are to be built simultaneously,' Ramalingam said.
'These two 500 MW reactors are expected to be completed by 2011 and will start functioning by 2017,' he said.
A fourth reactor will also find a home in Tamil Nadu, the official said, hinting this may not be at the Kalpakkam campus but further south.
'A facility for fabrication and re-processing the fuel is also going to be set up at a cost of Rs.12 billion,' he said.