India receives 60 tons of Russian enriched uranium
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, April 3, IRNA
India-Russia-Nuke
India has received first consignment of the promised supply of 60 tons of Russian enriched uranium fuel for the two units of Tarapur Atomic Power plants.
The first consignment of 20-25 tons of uranium, which has arrived from Russia at the Nuclear Fuel Complex of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), will be delivered to Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) at an appropriate time, media reports said here quoting sources at DAE.
The current fuel supply to the units I and II of the US built reactors (in 1960s) would last for eight months in one unit and for 18 months in the other.
Executive Director, Corporate Planning, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), S Thakur said that with the Russian supply of 60 tons of uranium, the plants would have fuel for the next five years.
NPCIL had recently renovated and modernized 35-year-old TAPS Unit I and II which could run for the next five years "smoothly", he said.
TAPS I and II, which were shut down in October last year, were reconnected to the Western Grid on February 16 after undergoing renovation, modernization and safety upgrading.
The two renovated units received the Atomic Energy regulatory board's license to operate for five years from February 16, 2006.
TAPS I and II are boiling water reactors and need low enriched uranium as fuel.
Last month, the russian prime minister during his visit to New Delhi announced his country's decision to supply 60 tons to TAPS.
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