To meet the high cost of Light Water Reactors (LWR) the government of India has decided to bring in such projects, which currently involve foreign collaborators as Joint ventures with state owned enterprises.
This strategy will make it easy for the Nuclear Power Cooperation of India (NPCIL) to focus on financing Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRS) that are coming up in India. Currently NPCIL is building Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) in India so NPCIL is arranging the equity on its own for (PHWRs) projects.
According to senior official of NPCIL, government of India has decided to push LWR projects for joint ventures. He further added that they are negotiating with banks to get 70% Loan while the rest 30% will come with Joint Ventures for LWRs project.
LWR are extremely expensive and it requires the much needed equity this is why the government of India has decided to push LWR projects for joint ventures. On the other hand PHWRs are less expensive than LWRsand more importantly India on its own developeda PHWRS.
In India eighteen new LWRs will be built soon. French company Electricite de France (EDF) will built six LWRS with a capacity to generate 1650 MW electricity each in Jaitapur, Westinghouse Co is expected to build another six LWRs with a capacity to generate 1000 MW electricity each in Andhra Pradesh and General Electric (GE) will build the rest 6 LWRs in India. Russia has also marked another site in Andhra Pradesh for building more LWRs.
