The crippling shortage of nuclear fuel,which has forced Indias nuclear power plants to operate way below their capacities,had resulted in a loss of about Rs 6,000 crore in unharnessed electricity,a CAG report has concluded,while indicting the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) for its inability to ensure fuel security for the reactors. The operation of most of these n-power plants at around half of their installed capacities,due to the lack of enough fuel,had denied the country the full benefits of clean nuclear energy to the extent of 21,845 million units valued at Rs 5986 crore, said the report,which was released on Thursday. The report on management of fuel for Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs),tabled in both the Houses said the fuel crisis was largely of the DAEs own making and pointed to a significant deficiency in the planning process of the organisation. Despite existence of uranium reserves in the country to support the present PHWR programme up to 2020,Indias capacity for generation of nuclear power has been compromised for want of uranium, it said. The DAE had not linked/ensured availability of fuel to fully address the needs of PHWR programme up to 2020. In spite of knowledge of an impending shortage of uranium fuel,the DAE went ahead and sought approval for four new PHWRs at a cost of Rs 6354 crore, the report said,adding that the Cabinet clearance for these reactors was taken without adequately highlighting the shortage of fuel for these reactors. As pointed by The Indian Express over the past few months,the operating capacities of a large number of nuclear power plants in the country had been progressively going down over the past two years because of what the DAE describes as a mismatch in the demand and supply of uranium fuel. For an installed capacity of 4120 MWe,of which about 3800 MWe comes from PHWRs,between 550 and 600 tonnes of uranium fuel are required every year. Against this,the current annual production barely touches 300 tonnes. As of now,there are five functional uranium mines,but just one processing mill working in Jadugudda in Jharkhand. Supplies from this one mill are not sufficient to run all the nuclear plants at their full capacities. The situation is likely to improve once another mill starts operating later this year. While complimenting the Heavy Water Board for stockpiling enough heavy water,the other raw material used in nuclear power plants,to ensure that the planned PHWR programme did not suffer for want of heavy water,the report said that the policy of not stockpiling uranium fuel needed to be reviewed in the context of the current fuel crisis.
