By IANS,
New Delhi : The country’s leading power producer NTPC Ltd Saturday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd (NPCIL) to jointly produce nuclear power plants.
As per the proposal, the power majors will set up a joint venture company in which NPCIL will hold 51 percent stake and NTPC will own the rest, a government statement said.
This would be the first joint venture in nuclear power generation in the country. NPCIL is currently the sole agency generating nuclear power in the country with a capacity of about 4,120 MW.
Earlier this month, NPCIL had signed another MoU with French Energy major Areva for supply of two European pressurised reactors of 1,650 MW capacity each.
Areva will supply the reactors for the nuclear power plant being set up by NPCIL at Jaiapur in Maharashtra.
The company has also inked a pact to import 2,000 tonnes of uranium from Russia.
Lauding the agreement, Minister of State for Power Jairam Ramesh said in the statement that the total nuclear power generation in the country would reach 6,000 MW in one year.
The current nuclear power generation is only to the tune of 1,800 MW, against an installed capacity of 4,120 MW. Shortage of nuclear fuel has plagued the nuclear power sector, he said.
Ramesh added that India plans to generate 20,000 MW of nuclear power by 2020. He, however, ruled out any possibility of private players setting up nuclear power plants in the first phase.