Indigenous Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR)

• In a significant decision to fast-track India’s domestic nuclear power programme, and give a push to country’s nuclear industry, the Union Cabinet has given its approval for construction of 10 units of India’s indigenous Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR).
• The 10 PHWR project will result in a significant augmentation of nuclear power generation capacity. With this, the total installed capacity of the Plants will be 7000 MW.
• The ten reactors will be part of India’s latest design of 700 MW PHWR fleet with state-of-art technology meeting the highest standards of safety.
• About pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR)
• A pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) is a nuclear power reactor, commonly using unenriched natural uranium as its fuel, that uses heavy water (deuterium oxide D2O) as its coolant and moderator.
• The heavy water coolant is kept under pressure, allowing it to be heated to higher temperatures without boiling, much as in a typical pressurized water reactor.
• While heavy water is significantly more expensive than ordinary light water, it yields greatly enhanced neutron economy, allowing the reactor to operate without fuel enrichment facilities (mitigating the additional capital cost of the heavy water) and generally enhancing the ability of the reactor to efficiently make use of alternate fuel cycles

Analysis:

• India has current installed nuclear power capacity of 6780 MW from 22 operational plants. Another 6700 MWs of nuclear power is expected to come onstream by 2021-22 through projects presently under construction.
• This Project will bring about substantial economies of scale and maximise cost and time efficiencies by adopting fleet mode for execution.
• It is expected to generate more than 33,400 jobs in direct and indirect employment.
• With manufacturing orders to domestic industry, it will be a major step towards strengthening India’s credentials as a major nuclear manufacturing powerhouse.
• It also supports India’s commitment to sustainable development, energy self-sufficiency and bolsters global efforts to combat climate change.

By: Vishal