Presently, there are 25 operational nuclear power plants in the country with a total capacity of 8880 MW. The details of operational nuclear power plants in the country are given in Annexure.

India is pursuing a three-stage nuclear power programme, for optimum utilization of its limited uranium resources and exploit vast thorium resources for long term energy security, by following nearly closed nuclear fuel cycle wherein the spent fuel from reactors is treated as resource material and not waste. India has developed expertise in backend fuel cycle of pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs).

The Programme of Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD&ER) is linked to the front end of nuclear fuel cycle, wherein exploration is carried out to identify, evaluate and augment atomic mineral resources to cater the need of Nuclear Power Programme of India. As on date, AMD&ER has established 4,28,300 tonnes in-situ U-oxide resource in 47 uranium deposits located in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra. The state-wise details of uranium resources are given in Table 1.

Besides,Directoratehasestimated13.15million tonnes (Mt) in-situmonazite (a mineral containing thorium, uranium and Rare Earth Elements) resource occurring in the coastal beach and teri/red sands in parts of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat and in the inland alluvium in parts of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. Monazite in beach placer

sands contain about 9-10% thorium oxide. The estimated in-situ monazite resource (13.15Mt) contains approximately 1.04Mt thorium metal (Th) or approximately 1.18Mt thorium oxide (ThO2). The state-wise details of these resources are given in Table 2.

Uranium fuel requirement for the reactors which are under domestic safeguards is adequately met by Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL), a Public Sector Enterprise under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). Time to time, projects which include capacity expansion of some of existing units as well as for establishing new projects in various parts of the country, are planned for maintaining sustained supply from UCIL.

Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) with its initial establishment in Hyderabad has further augmented its own production facilities for fuel and structural fabrication at Hyderabad and further establishednewfacilitiesthroughGreenfieldProjectsat“ZirconiumComplex”, Pazhayakayal for Zirconium sponge production and “NFC-Kota” for Fuel Production. The project at Zirconium Complex, Pazhayakayal is completed in 2009 and is under operation since then.

NFC-Kota project is scheduled for completion by March 2026 and has currently achieved more than 90% physical progress with commissioning of major equipment in advanced stage.

Currently, the spent fuel from PHWRs is reprocessed to extract fissile material for use as fuel for next stage nuclear powerplants. However, a small volume of radioactive liquid wastes containing minor actinides and fission products is generated during reprocessing. The high level radioactive liquid waste, generated from reprocessing of spent fuel, is subjected to a process called vitrification, wherein it is converted to glass. This vitrified solid product is subjected to natural cooling in solid storage surveillance facility. This policy is at par with international practices following the guidelines of International Atomic Energy Agency.

For efficient management of high-level radioactive waste, BARC has developed and demonstrated partition technology for separation of long-lived actinides to facilitate increase in specific loading of waste in the vitrified solid and thereby facilitating substantial volume reduction of vitrified waste. Moreover, this partition technology also helps in recovery of useful radio- isotopes such as Caesium-137, Strontium-90, Ruthenium-106 from the liquid wastes for various societal applications.

Capacity enhancement for PHWR fuel reprocessing and waste management is under progress by construction of large capacity Integrated Nuclear Recycling Plant (INRP) for deploying the partition technology.

This information was given by Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, Earth Sciences, MoS PMO, Department of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Space and Department of Atomic Energy, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.   

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