Economies of scale in nuclear power

Economies of scale in nuclear power

The Cabinet’s green signal to rev up India’s nuclear power capacity needs to be followed through with concrete plans to rationalise costs and reap scale economies in plant execution. The government has approved the setting up of 10 nuclear power stations of 700 MW each, using indigenously developed pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs). They would be the biggest such plants, as most of our PHWRs have been smaller, of 220 MW capacity, and the two units of 540 MW each at Tarapur were commissioned over a decade ago. The larger plant size should step up efficiency in generation. But more needs to be done: innovative design, standardised equipment and strict timelines for construction. It should be possible to curb project expenses with speedy execution. Project delays can make nuclear plants well-nigh unviable. Sourcing and managing component costs would be key. We need to purposefully reduce plant erection and commissioning periods so as to rein in capital and interest costs during construction, while upholding safety and reliability parameters. There is also the need to leverage international experience to step up efficiency in project implementation, operations and possible expansion.
We need to aim at fully commissioning modern modular nuclear power plants within four or five years of the first pour of concrete. It would keep the attendant price of power competitive, and also augment indigenous capacity to undertake nuclear commerce internationally. Concurrently, a larger nuclear power generation capacity and consequent increased baseload installation calls for a revamped power tariff policy. The Centre needs to call for time-of-day tariffs nationally and digital metering, as power demand during the hours of peak load is expected to steadily rise.