Government plans to set up more atomic energy plants with latest safeguards available in the international market and construction work on eight reactors is in progress, the Rajya Sabha was informed Thursday.
The eight nuclear reactors, when completed, will lead to enhancement of power capacity from the current 3360 MWe to 7280 MWe in the next five years, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan said in a written reply.
He said completion of the reactors will add 760 MWe this financial year, 1660 MWe in the next financial year, 1000 MWe in 2008-09 and 500 MWe in 2010-11.
In addition to the capacity of 7280 MWe in operation or under construction, more nuclear power projects are also planned to progressively increase the nuclear capacity base in the country, Chavan said.
Exploitation of indigenous nuclear resources for production of electricity is based on three-stage nuclear power programme, he said adding, the three stages have fuel cycle linkages and have to be gone through sequentially which requires time.
Chavan said the country's atomic energy programme has been formulated to achieve long-term energy security through use of abundantly available Indian thorium resources.
Imported nuclear fuels are expected to serve as additional resource to help in achieving faster growth in the share of nuclear energy to meet the national energy needs, he said.
Chavan said the government's policy is to achieve rapid growth in nuclear power generation in India based on full international civilian nuclear cooperation while continuing efforts to develop appropriate indigenous technologies towards realisation of the ultimate goal of large-scale utilisation of thorium for energy production in the form of electricity as well as hydrogen.
The minister said the Kirit Parikh panel had recommended that nuclear energy is critical for long-term energy security of the country.
Replying to another question, Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma said India was engaged in a dialogue with a broad range of countries including Russia and France and they have agreed on the need to have full international civilian nuclear cooperation with India.
