India registers record production of nuclear fuel

NEW DELHI: In a major milestone for the nuclear industry, India has registered a record production of over 1,252 MT of uranium bundles, manufacturing close to double the annual fuel requirement of atomic reactors in the country.

The production has also exceeded country's annual fuel requirement of 650 MT for the Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs), which means the country has surplus nuclear fuel, for at least a few months.

The Hyderabad-based Nuclear Fuel Complex, which produces fuel for nuclear reactors in the country, has produced over 30 per cent more fuel compared to its 961.023 MT production in 2013-14.

"We have gone beyond our requirement this year," Chief Engineer of NFC, N Saibaba, told PTI here.

The news is a breather for the power reactors in the country, which for all these years had been "under- performing", primarily because of lack of fuel.

NFC, set-up with an initial production capacity of 100 MT per year, was augmented several times to enhance the capacity to 850 MT, to cater to the fuel requirement of all the 18 operating PHWRs and the 2 Boiling Water Reactors at Tarapur.

"The credit for this achievement goes to the employees. The average working hours of NFC employees have increased from 6.25 hours to 8.15 hours. Secondly, we have made changes in almost all the manufacturing processes, which saved on time," Saibaba added.

The nuclear fuel production in the country has seen a steady increase over the last seven years. A lot has been attributed to the Indo-US nuclear agreement and the subsequent Nuclear Suppliers Group that made the process of acquiring uranium simpler.

In 2008-09, NFC produced 226.89--the year Indo-US nuclear deal was signed. In 2009-10, the figure increased to 600.91 MT. In 2013-14, it crossed its rated capacity of 850 MT for the first time and produced 961.23 MT of uranium fuel.

India produces around 5,780 MW of nuclear power. Of this, 4,780 MW of electricity is generated by fuel processed at the NFC. Fuel for the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) unit 1 is provided by Russia, as per the bilateral agreement.

Incidentally, the increase in the production of fuel comes at a time when Indian mines at Jaduguda in Jharkhand have been shut for over eight months now.

Closure of operations at two uranium mines in Jharkhand has so far led to a "loss of over 19 tonnes" of nuclear fuel, having a potential to produce about 860 million units of electricity.

The uranium ore extraction from Jaduguda and Bhatin mines, operated by the Uranium Corporation of India (UCIL), a PSU under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), has been suspended since September last year.

"Although, there was a decline of production of uranium from the Jaduguda and Bhatin mines, the UCIL did not let to affect the supply of uranium and provided ore from their excess stock," Saibaba, also a director on the UCIL Board, said.

Listing the achievements of the NFC, Saibaba added that the production facility has managed to produce 2,270 kgs of niobium metal -- widely used in the space industry -- as compared to 1,835 khs in 2013-14.

The NFC also manufactures seamless tubes in different grades of materials for strategic applications, meeting critical requirements of the Departments of Atomic Energy, Space and Defence.

These include truss rod assemblies, hydraulic tubing for Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), special grade copper blanks for Prithvi and Nag Missiles, missile casing and gun barrels, star-shaped and Louvre's profile seamless tubes for battle tanks, special-grade seamless tubes for nuclear submarine, seamless tubes for advanced ultra-supercritical boilers and BrahMos.

"After the Pokhran tests and the subsequent technology denial regime, NFC had to build indigenous capability for design and manufacture of special purpose equipment for pilgering, honing, sintering, welding, machining, final assembly etc.

"While some of these equipment were conceptualised, designed and fabricated in-house, Indian industry played a vital role in developing a lot of critical equipment.

"Over the years, NFC has perfected the technology of manufacturing seamless tubes such as fuel tubes, pressure tubes, calandria tubes etc, improving the quality, material recovery and productivity," Saibaba added.