India punya 15 reaktor ukuran kecil, 2 ukuran sedang, 6 reaktor sedang dibangun

India secara meyakinkan sudah mempunyai 15 reaktor kecil, 2 ukuran sedang (mid-size) dan 6 reaktor lagi sedang dibangun. Semantara Indonesia, negara berpenduduk no 4 dunia, setelah China, India, dan Amerika Serikat masih memperdebatkan untuk membangun atau tidak PLTN. Bahkan undang-undang yang sudah ditetapkan oleh DPR dianggap angin lalu oleh pemerintahan SBY, yang sedang sibuk untuk menghadapi pemilu 2009. Atmosfir yang ditiupkan oleh orang-orang yang sakit hati, dan organisasi green peace yang menjadi lembaga kepentingan pihak-pihak tertentu terus menyuarakan antipatinya. Pihak pro PLTN tetap berdiam diri. Sampai kapankah pro-kontra PLTN berlangsung, sementara India apalagi China masih tetap konsisten dengan rencana energi mereka, tanpa terganggu dengan krisis Ekonomi global. Baca berita berikut

Nuclear Power in India

(October 2008)

• India has a flourishing and largely indigenous nuclear power program and expects to have 20,000 MWe nuclear capacity on line by 2020. It aims to supply 25% of electricity from nuclear power by 2050.
• Because India is outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty due to its weapons program, it has been for 34 years largely excluded from trade in nuclear plant or materials, which has hampered its development of civil nuclear energy.
• Due to these trade bans and lack of indigenous uranium, India has uniquely been developing a nuclear fuel cycle to exploit its reserves of thorium.
• From 2008, foreign technology and fuel are expected to boost India's nuclear power plans considerably.

Electricity demand in India has been increasing rapidly, and the 534 billion kilowatt hours produced in 2002 was almost double the 1990 output, though still represented only 505 kWh per capita for the year. In 2005, 699 billion kWh gross was produced, but with huge transmission losses this resulted in less than 500 billion kWh consumption. The per capita figure is expected to almost triple by 2020, with 6.3% annual growth. Coal provides 69% of the electricity at present, but reserves are limited.

Nuclear power supplied 15.8 billion kWh (2.5%) of India's electricity in 2007 from 3.7 GWe (of 110 GWe total) capacity and this will increase steadily as imported uranium becomes available and new plants come on line. India's fuel situation, with shortage of fossil fuels, is driving the nuclear investment for electricity, and 25% nuclear contribution is foreseen by 2050, from one hundred times the 2002 capacity. Almost as much investment in the grid system as in power plants is necessary.

In 2006 almost US$ 9 billion was committed for power projects, including 9354 MWe of new generating capacity, taking forward projects to 43.6 GWe and US$ 51 billion.

A KPMG report in 2007 said that India needed to spend US$ 120-150 billion on power infrastructure over the next five years, including transmission and distribution. It said that distribution losses are currently some 30-40%, worth more than $6 billion per year.

The target since about 2004 has been for nuclear power is to provide 20,000 MWe by 2020, but in 2007 the prime Minister referred to this as "modest" and capable of being "doubled with the opening up of international cooperation." However, it is evident that on the basis of indigenous fuel supply only, the 20,000 MWe target is not attainable, or at least not sustainable without uranium imports.

Nuclear power industry development

Nuclear power for civil use is well established in India. Its civil nuclear strategy has been directed towards complete independence in the nuclear fuel cycle, necessary because it is excluded from the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) due to it acquiring nuclear weapons capability after 1970. (Those five countries doing so before 1970 were accorded the status of Nuclear Weapons States under the NPT.)

As a result, India's nuclear power program has proceeded largely without fuel or technological assistance from other countries (but see later section). Its power reactors to the mid 1990s had some of the world's lowest capacity factors, reflecting the technical difficulties of the country's isolation, but rose impressively from 60% in 1995 to 85% in 2001-02.

India's nuclear energy self-sufficiency extended from uranium exploration and mining through fuel fabrication, heavy water production, reactor design and construction, to reprocessing and waste management. It has a small fast breeder reactor and is building a much larger one. It is also developing technology to utilise its abundant resources of thorium as a nuclear fuel.

The Atomic Energy Establishment was set up at Trombay, near Mumbai, in 1957 and renamed as Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC) ten years later. Plans for building the first Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) were finalised in 1964, and this prototype - Rawatbhata-1, which had Canada's Douglas Point reactor as a reference unit, was built as a collaborative venture between Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd and NPCIL. It started up in 1972 and was duplicated Subsequent indigenous PHWR development has been based on these units.

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) is responsible for design, construction, commissioning and operation of thermal nuclear power plants.

It has 15 small and two mid-sized nuclear power reactors in commercial operation, six under construction - including two large ones and a fast breeder reactor, and more planned.

selengkapnya baca: http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf53.html