Cooperation agreement for Indian ABWR parts

Tuesday, 19 May 2009

India's Larsen & Toubro is to cooperate on Advanced Boiling Water Reactors with GE Hitachi after a memorandum of understanding announced today.

ABWR

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) described the agreement with GE Hitachi (GEH) as a "major step forward" for the Indian engineering company in the manufacture and construction of Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) components and systems. According to L&T, the two companies hope to utilize indigenous Indian capabilities for the complete construction of nuclear power plants including the supply of reactor equipment and systems, valves, electrical and instrumentation products for ABWR plants to be set up in India.

In a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange, L&T described GEH's ABWR as the only commercially proven Generation III advanced reactor design - four ABWR units are already in operation in Japan, and more are under construction in Japan and Taiwan, with further units planned in Japan and also in the USA. (GEH confirmed in March that its Unified ABWR design has been selected by Exelon for construction at the Victoria site in North Texas.)

Both L&T and GEH have signed other international agreements recently with Indian nuclear new-build in mind. In April, L&T and Russia's AtomStroyExport signed an MoU covering cooperation on Russian-designed VVER-1000 nuclear power reactors, while GEH signed preliminary agreements with Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd (NPCIL) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) to prepare for the construction of new nuclear power reactors in India in March.

 

GEH said that it would plan with L&T for the construction and engineering management resources for "the proposed ABWR power station," adding that "GEH will serve as the technology provider of certain ABWR nuclear island equipment and components, as well as related engineering and technical advisory services."
 
Post-election nuclear push?

The return to power of India's ruling coalition with an increased majority following elections last week is likely to herald a strong push to increase generating capacity including nuclear, if the election manifesto of the coalition-leading National Congress party is put into action. According to the manifesto, the party pledges to add at least 12,000 to 15,000 MWe of capacity every year from a mixture of coal, hydro, nuclear and renewables, and promises a "very significant increase in the share of nuclear power, both through domestic and imported technology".

India currently has some 3.7 GWe of nuclear plants, representing about 3% of its total installed generating capacity, but has ambitious plans to increase that. Its long isolation from international nuclear trade as a result of its status as a non-signatory of the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) effectively came to an end last year with the signature of various international civil agreements. With a strengthened position in parliament, the coalition will no longer be reliant on support from the Communist factions which threatened to scupper the trade agreement between the USA and India last year, and should be in a better position to deliver on its pre-election promises.