Russian nuclear reactors allocated to AP and Karnataka

Government sources say that in giving sites for Russian atomic power reactors, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have shown interest. The response from these two states has come as a relief for the Government as other states such as Kerala, West Bengal and Odisha were reluctant to provide sites.

Earlier the Haripur site was allocated to the Russians to build nuclear power reactors by the site selection committee but the project could not take off due to stiff resistance from the locals.

With less than 1000 MW capacity, the power plants in central and northern India including Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh; water that acts as a coolant for nuclear reactors cannot be pumped in from the sea. Hence these states were ruled out apart from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu as all these states have two or more nuclear sites and cannot have additional plants. Therefore Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have been allocated for nuclear power plants as one power plant is allocated in each state.

In Andhra Pradesh, the Centre has already marked Kovvada as a site to build a nuclear plant with the assistance of American company GE Hitachi. In Karnataka, Kaiga is another coastal state that has four PHWR reactors of 220 MW each.