Low on fuel and no sign of deal, nuclear power plants take a hit

Four of the plants have also shown a marginal increase of 2-5 per cent in their operating capacities.

In 2006-07, these 17 power plants together generated 18,800 million units (MUs) of electricity which has come down to 15,600 MUs this year (till February). NPCIL says at the end of this month, the expected total figure is 17,000 MUs.

Asked about the decline in total power generation, NPCIL pointed out that three of the units, one each at Narora, Kaiga and Rawatbhatta, have not operated for most of the year because of different maintenance related reasons. The plant at Narora underwent a coolant channel replacement and has already been synchronized back into operation earlier this month. The Kaiga unit is shut down since August last year because of generator repair and replacement and is expected to resume operations within a week.

The unit at Rawatbhatta, shut down in July last year for feeder replacement, is expected to restart only by July, a NPCIL official said.

Without mentioning anything about the fuel shortage, the official said the total power generation had been consistent with fuel availability through the year. However, NPCIL had, in an earlier communication to The Indian Express, pointed out that there are five functional uranium mines but just one processing mill working in Jadugudda in Jharkhand. Supplies from this one mill were not sufficient to run all the nuclear plants at their full capacities, it had said, adding that once another processing mill in Jharkhand starts operations shortly, the situation would improve significantly.

Not surprisingly, the two nuclear plants still running at around 90 per cent of their capacities are the units 1 and 2 at Tarapore which had received emergency fuel supplies from Russia last year. Such supplies are not possible for any other Indian reactor till the nuclear deal is operationalised.