NUCLEAR: India nuclear liability bill passed by the government.

 

Now that the nuclear liability bill/act has been cleared by the government of the India, the heavy engineering supply chain, led by Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Bharat Forge Ltd (BFL), is gearing to take up the challenge ahead.

India plans 25000MW of nuclear capacity addition in the next ten year. 7000MW will be done with domestic technology and the rest with technology from other countries.

L&T, a 64 year old company, has complete solutions for turbine and BOP. It has tied up with GE Hitachi, Atomstroyexport, Toshiba Westinghouse, Atomic Energy of Canada and Rolls-Royce. L&T and HCC are doing the EPC for two plants.

India plans to add 8x700 Mwe pressurised heavy water reactors, 3x500 fast breeder reactors, 1x300 Mwe advanced heavy water (thorium) and 10x1,000 Mwe light water reactors by 2032. BHEL, which is associated with 80 per cent of the heavy equipment for India's indigenous nuclear power programme and has done turbines and generators of 540 MWe rating for the Tarapur station of the Nuclear Power Corporation (NPCIL), is now building the conventional turbine generator island for two 700 mw units each at Kakrapar and Rawatbhata.

NPCIL-L&T JV will manufacture finished forgings for nuclear reactors, pressurizers and steam generators, and also heavy forgings for critical equipment in the hydrocarbon sector and for thermal power plants.

BFL, the world's second-largest forging company, is also in the process of making a big foray into nuclear forgings capacity. In January 2009, it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Areva to set up a joint venture in casting and forging nuclear components for both the export and domestic market.

BHEL has a 10-year technology transfer agreement with Sheffield Forgemasters for large power plant components.

HCC  has a joint venture with AMEC, the UK-based engineering and project management firm to undertake consulting services and nuclear power plant construction.