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Nuclear energy: Widening the scope of collaboration

State-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL),which is in advanced stages of launching nuclear ventures in collaboration with three public sector firms, NTPC Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation and Nalco, has expanded scope of such collaborations to include two other government entities — upstream petroleum major ONGC Ltd & Indian Railways. This comes at time when NDA government has cleared proposal to designate upcoming atomic power projects with foreign technical cooperation to set up through joint ventures,which is likely to be the pattern followed for all new projects,going beyond Kudankulam units that are already being set up with Russian assistance.

Preliminary discussions have already been held with ONGC on issue while “exploratory discussions” for setting up joint venture with Indian Railways to set up nuclear power plants has been held. An official involved in exercise said decision to leverage JVs for new projects being set up under foreign collaboration route marks a departure from current strategy followed by country’s nuclear establishment, where atomic power reactors are executed solely by NPCIL & are funded by a mix of debt & equity leveraged by nuclear power utility. Sources indicated that broader view within nuclear establishment earlier was to deploy all three JVs for new projects being set up based on indigenous Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor, or PHWR, technology.