Indian Nuclear Development and Technology

nandu

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India, Kazakhstan conclude talks for civil nuke deal


PM Manmohan Singh and Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev during their meeting in Washington.

India and Kazakhstan will soon wrap-up inter-governmental negotiations on civil nuclear cooperation, a move that came after meeting of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Kazakh President Noorsultan Nazarbayev.

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, is scheduled to visit Kazakhstan next month to draw a road map to implement the agreements and initiatives that were agreed between the two countries when Nazarbayev, visited New Delhi in January 2009.

During a 45-minute meeting with Singh, on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit here, Nazarbayev also invited Indian companies to invest heavily in Kazakhstan.

Singh and Nazarbayev also discussed the situation in the region including Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Both agreed on the importance of stability, security and economic development of Afghanistan and also expressed concern at production of narcotics and trafficking of narcotics.
"Nazarbayev was very appreciative of India's role in development and reconstruction of Afghanistan," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash, told journalists here, adding that he was of the view that once the situation in Afghanistan stabilises that would pave the way for direct surface link between India and Kazakhstan.

"The President invited Prime Minister to visit Kazakhstan, which he accepted," Prakash said.

"President Nazarbayev mentioned to the Prime Minister that they were planning 170 major projects in a variety of sectors to speed up the industrialisation of Kazakhstan and invited Indian companies to participate in those projects.

He also noted that there was a Customs Union between Kazakhstan, Belarus and Russia and that Indian companies present there could supply their goods and services to the entire customs union so that they have a large area and population to cover," he added.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/india-kazakhstan-conclude-talks-for-civil-nuke-deal/605676/
 

ajtr

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Uranium hunt bid in Meghalaya national park raises storm

sacred national park with a perceived Ramayana connection to facilitate uranium exploration has incensed tribal groups in Meghalaya.
The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has asked the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to de-notify 8 sq km inside the 400 sq km Balpakram National Park (BNP) in Meghalaya's South Garo Hills. The area falls on the ecologically fragile Rongcheng Plateau.
The Standing Committee of the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) under MoEF had in a meeting on 12 December 2008 discussed DAE's proposal for exploratory uranium mining in BNP.
DAE justified the need for targeting BNP citing India's national resolve to generate at least 20,000MW of nuclear power by 2020. The Rongcheng plateau, a recent DAE survey said, is one of the "most potential" sites for "high grade, large tonnage uranium deposits" that requires confirmation through exploratory drilling.
According to the Garo Hills Anti-Mining Forum (GHNAMF) – a conglomerate of 11 social and green organizations – locals were kept in the dark about the "clandestine bid" until it moved RTI last year.
"We are not going to allow any mining activities inside BNP," said GHNAMF general secretary Ginseng Sangma. The biodiversity hotspot tag on BNP was not the only reason, he added.
"Balpakram is sacred for the Garo tribal people. We believe the spirit of our ancestors reside in these forests sustaining the tiger, hoolock gibbon and slow loris besides elephants," said fellow activist Vaishali A Sangma.
BNP is holy for Hindus too. They believe Balpakram was the mythological mound from where Hanuman plucked sanjeevani, the life-giving herb, for the wounded Lakshman felled by Meghnad in Ramayana.
But isn't mining activity in and around a national park rejected outright? In the case of uranium, considered a critical mineral, the MoEF can allow its mining in the "larger national interest".
DAE officials said things "haven't progressed enough" to invite anger from local organizations. But NMWL member Bibhab Talukdar said a team is scheduled to visit BNP on April 22 to seek the views of the people on DAE's proposal and submit a report to the standing committee.
Notably, another uranium mining proposal in Domiasiat area of West Khasi Hills district in Meghalaya has been hanging fire since 1992. Several anti-nuke groups have stalled the project citing radiation effect on human health and environmental degradation.
The Uranium Corporation of India Limited wants to set up a Rs 1046 crore opencast uranium mining and processing unit in Domiasiat. The area bordering Bangladesh has an estimated deposit of 9.22 million tones of uranium ore. EOM
 
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what the hell is wrong with this state ?they are sitting on a pile of uranium and they won't let the government touch it even after promises of concessions and terms.
 

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Russia plans to set up N-fuel fabrication plant in India

The Russian nuclear fuel major TVEL is in discussions with the department of atomic energy to set up a state-of-the-art nuclear fuel fabrication plant to fuel its upcoming and proposed plants in the country.

The Russian government-owned company will be setting up eight to ten plants at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu and Haripur in West Bengal over the next two decades under the Indo-Russian civil nuclear agreement, and the proposed fabrication plant will be supplying fuel to these plants,TVEL executive director for communications and public affairs Ivan Dybov said here.

The site for the proposed nuclear fuel fabrication plant will be decided only after the discussions with the DAE are concluded, he added. TVEL is planning to set up the fabrication plant in the country to bring down cost considerably, Dybov said. The Russian major will be setting up at least 8-10 VVER-1000 type reactors at Kudankulam and Haripur under the bilateral civil nuclear agreement.

"In this regard, Russia has offered a proposal and gave a detailed plan to the government of India last year," Dybov said adding the discussions in this regard are on. TVEL, which holds 17 per cent of the world's nuclear fuel market, already has a contract with the DAE to supply 2000mt fuel to the country's pressurised heavy water reactors over the next five years. The company already supplies to the two units of US-built Tarapur Atomic plant as the US stopped supplying fuel after the Pokhran-I nuke tests.

Two VVER-1000-type power plants of 1,000mw each are under advanced stages of construction at Kudankulam and soon the TVEL-supplied fuel will be loaded as part of their commissioning process, Dybov said. TVEL is part of the Russian government-owned Rosatom. Although the company has been supplying fuel to India for the last 10 years, this is the first time it has come out to address the media.

Dybov said TVEL has an understanding with the French nuclear major Areva for fuel fabrication and already fabricated 2,000 fuel bundles for them. Asked whether the proposed fuel fabrication plant will also cater the Areva plants to be built in the near future in the country, he said it could be possible as TVEL is already fabricating fuel for several Western-type of nuclear reactors of this French major.

Replying to a query on the enrichment plant (as the Russian plant is a light water reactor it requires enriched uranium as fuel unlike the indigenously build pressurised heavy water reactor which requires natural uranium), he said, "though TVEL is constructing an enrichment plant in China and running four in Russia, we have no plans of it in India."
TVEL enjoys a whopping 45 per cent share of the global uranium enrichment market.

The TVEL official also said, the company was revamped recently and working on cost reduction and high efficiency fuel. TVEL has developed a new and improved type of fuel for the Russian-type reactors which will enable transition to prolonged fuel cycle along with power increase up to 104 per cent, making the fuelling cost cheaper.

TVEL supplies fuel to 76 reactors in 16 countries and recently signed a contract with Hungary. "We also supply fuel to 30 research reactors in 17 countries and expects to reach a 25 per cent share of global fuel supply market from the current 17 per cent, Dybov informed.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/65829/russia-plans-set-up-n.html
 

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India leading research on Thorium: US official

Washington, May 20 (PTI) India is the leading country in the research of Thorium, a naturally occurring radio active metal, a US official has said, even as the there is a distinct possibility of its use in nuclear reactors.

"Thorium is only used in an experimental and a research way, but in theory, it could be used for reactors.

I think the country that's leading the research effort is India, actually, which has large amounts of thorium and so they're very interested in it," Warren P Miller the Assistant Secretary Energy (Nuclear) said.

In his testimony before the House Science and Technology Committee, Miller said in his personal opinion the uranium resource will not be a showstopper for nuclear energy.

"There's also the Thorium possibility. Thorium is actually more prevalent in the crust than uranium is worldwide.
 

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