NPCI is building two 700MW pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR), including Units 3 and 4 at Kakrapar, where there are two 220MW power plants. Officials say that in July, the fourth unit recorded 97.56% progress.
Wonder why they’re building these instead of thermal coal plants
700MW isn’t much, but I see they plan to build 16 which is a bit more significant (2023 usage is 236.59 and rising). Are they planning to ramp up 15GW by 2031 using these planned plants? The math checks out on the generation, but it does not check out on the timeline. 2 more are reportedly largely complete, but on the other hand 10 have just received approval. These appear to mostly be similar designs, and for context this particular unit took three years from achieving criticality to supplying power.
I have some other concerns/questions about the plan other than what appears to be an impossible timeline - like how well they’ve modeled the risk of local climate change on their cooling ponds. It’s not that nuclear is bad, I’m just wondering if the priorities were correctly evaluated here - or if things like corruption might be at play.
isn’t much compared to what?