Holtec ships ‘spent fuel storage racks’ to India for deployment at Kudankulam nuclear power plant

The completed modules, co-produced by Holtec Asia and its parent Holtec International, will be installed in a freestanding configuration in a new wet storage facility being built at the Kudankulam site.

New York: Supply of state-of-the-art nuclear components to India’s Kudankulam plant through close collaborative efforts of diversified energy technology company Holtec has been hailed as an “opportunity” by the company’s India-born CEO Dr. Kris Singh.

New Jersey-based Holtec International announced in a statement the shipment of the first state-of-the-art “Spent Fuel Storage Racks” made of Metamic with the highest reactivity suppression capacity and structural strength metrics to India for deployment at Nuclear Power Corporation of India’s Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, built with Russian technical collaboration.

“The supply of these complex nuclear components through a close collaborative effort between Holtec (US) and Holtec Asia has given us the opportunity to demonstrate that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to elevate India’s manufacturing capacity to world class levels can be realized in full measure by using a systematic approach of technology infusion into the country,” Singh said.

A separate shipment containing a multi-purpose transport cask, ‘HI-STAR 149’, co-produced by Holtec International and Holtec Asia (Pune) featuring the industry’s latest radiation-shielding technology is also headed to India to be used for transferring the spent fuel stored in Kudankulam’s reactor building pools to the wet storage facility.

The rack modules and the transport cask represent the latest in the nuclear criticality safety, radiation blockage and structural strength based on several proven Holtec innovations protected by an array of patents that are being introduced to India’s nuclear industry, the statement said. They will form the key equipment needed to execute fuel management operations at Kudankulam.

Singh added that the company looks forward to the “passage of the long-awaited act by Lok Sabha that will enable the private sector to contribute to the rise of India’s nuclear power industry and render the country into a global powerhouse in this important energy sector.”

Singh also said that Holtec eagerly awaits the “opportunity to build our walk-away safe SMR-300 reactor that can be deployed equally well in all regions of the country including the barren land in Ladakh, parched Rajasthan or the earthquake-vulnerable northern Gangetic plain

“We are equally eager to introduce trailblazer technologies such as synergized power generation by our SMR-300 reactor combined with our concentrated solar plant, ‘HI-THERM HCSP’, to make “coal to clean” transition financially profitable,” he said.

Holtec International is a diversified energy technology company recognised as the leading technology innovator in the field of carbon-free power generation, specifically commercial nuclear and solar energy.