“Ground breaking for four indigenous 700 MWe reactors will happen in 2011-12 and four more will happen next year,” Srikumar Banerjee, chairman, atomic energy commission said here on Friday. After ground-breaking it can take 6-7 years to construct a nuclear reactor.
In the first batch, two will be set up at the existing sites of Kakrapara near Surat in Gujarat and two in Rawatbhatta near Kota in Rajasthan. The other four will come up in Bargi near Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh and Gorakhpur near Hissar in Haryana. However, these two sites are yet to receive the environment approval.
These are in addition to Jaitapur where French major Areva plans to supply six 1,650 MWe nuclear reactors to create a nuclear energy park.
At the moment discussions are on between Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd and Areva for the purchase of the first two of the six.
Published 18 March 2011, 18:36 IST