Union Cabinet approves construction of 10 units of India’s indigenous Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors

The Union Cabinet, presided by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on 17 May 2017 gave a green signal for the construction of 10 units of India’s indigenous Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR).  

The move aims to fast-track India’s domestic nuclear power programme and give a push to country’s nuclear industry.

The 10 PHWR project will result in a significant augmentation of nuclear power generation capacity. The total installed capacity of the Plants will be 7000 MW.

In a first of its kind project for India’s nuclear power sector, the ten new units will come up in fleet mode as a fully homegrown initiative. It would be one of the flagship “Make in India” projects in this sector.

At present, the installed nuclear power capacity of Indian is 6780 MW from 22 operational plants.

Key highlights

• The project will help transform Indian nuclear industry by linking the country’s goal of a strong nuclear power sector with its indigenous industrial capacities in high-end technologies.

• This Project will bring about substantial economies of scale and maximise cost and time efficiencies by adopting fleet mode for execution.

• The Project is expected to generate more than 33400 jobs in direct and indirect employment.

• 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.