Using uranium fuel supplied by France’s Areva and Russia’s TVEL Corporation, three of India’s oldest atomic power stations have been able to recover from low capacity factors.
The General Electric-supplied Tarapur units 1 and 2 ran at 90 and 99 percent of capacity in the period from April to June 2010; they are both rated at just 160 megawatts each and are over 40 years old. These units are located near Mumbai. Further north in desert of Rajasthan, the RAPS 2 unit produced at 97 percent of its 200 megawatt capacity in the same time frame.
All three reactors are under the IAEA safeguards regime which allows India to use imported uranium at plants where there is no potential of military application. Currently six Indian reactors totalling to 1060 megawatts are under international safeguards and qualify for the use of imported uranium.
Areva is contracted to supply 300 ton for India’s existing Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors based on the “Candu” technology. TVEL Corporation is commited to 2,000 tons of uranium pellets in low-enriched form for use in Tarapur and in the new plants at Kudankulam, which use Russian VVER technology but are not operational yet.
The benefits to Russian and French companies are flowing from the American led movement to open up nuclear commerce with India, after sanctions were first imposed in 1974. Ironically American companies have yet to gain export permissions to sell anything to India.
