Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety

Bridging the energy deficit by LWR technology in INDIA: Impact on society, business & Economy and challenges to meet

The strong correlation between per capita electricity generation and per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is well known. Therefore, to realize the consistent high growth rates envisaged by the country, electricity generation has to increase in tandem. Further, human induced global warming has already reached 1° C and if continued as per Paris agreement, the carbon budget for 1.5° C warming will be exhausted much earlier. Therefore, there is urgency to rapidly decarbonize and increase the energy efficiency. India has steadfastly seen nuclear power as an important element in India's energy strategy and is critical to achieve India's objective of clean energy, security and diversity in supply. While maintaining the indigenous three stage program, large scale addition to the capacity with light water reactors through international collaboration has been included as additionalities to meet growing energy demand. In the first phase of implementation of LWRs, six units of VVER 1000 in cooperation with Russian federation are taken up at Kudankulam, Tamilnadu. In addition, discussions are underway with other LWR vendors viz. AP 1000 of Westinghouse, EPR of EDF/AREVA and VVER 1200 at other sites in India. Efforts are on to rapidly localize the design and construction consistent with “Make in India” program of Indian Government. The impact of Nuclear power especially LWRs on business, economy and society is also discussed. It also discusses the total energy reserves of India, its energy forecasts, population growth, GDP growth and Nuclear power projections in line with requirement. Further, as safety is a moving target, therefore challenges with respect to meeting stringent safety requirement especially post Fukushima is also discussed along with incorporation of active and passive systems to strengthen the safety. The advancement in technology also lead towards achieving the goal of higher design life of the reactors, higher availability, lower waste generation, lower predicted core damage frequency, lower large release frequency, lesser occupational radiation exposure, simplified operation and maintenance aspects of the plant. Lastly the challenges with respect to construction and commissioning as well as indigenization are also briefly discussed. The R&D efforts with respect to Nuclear Power in general & LWR in particular are also discussed.