Nuclear Fuel Complex Day celebrated with fervour

Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) celebrated NFC Day today at Dr Homi Bhabha Convention Centre, DAE Colony, in The city.

Renowned Metallurgist Padma Vibhushan Prof P Rama Rao, Member, Atomic Energy Commission and Chairman, Governing Council, International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI) graced the function as Chief Guest. UC Muktibodh, Director (Technical), NPCIL was the Guest of Honour in the function.

Rama Rao congratulated CE, NFC and the staff for sustained world record production of Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) fuel for the last three consecutive years and excellent performance over the years.

He also highlighted the important role played by NFC in the Nuclear Power Programme of the country which is appreciated at different levels. He stressed on the importance of science and work-based research.

Muktibodh complimented NFC for the timely supply of fuel assemblies to all the Reactors in the country. He congratulated NFC on the marvelous accomplishments and for mastering the technology of fuel fabrication and thus becoming the world leader in PHWR fuel fabrication.

He further complimented NFC for the supply of reactor core structurals like Pressure Tubes, Calandria Tubes, Garter Springs and applauded for the development and supply of Inconel-800 Steam Generator Tubes for the 700 MWe PHWRs.

He stated that over the years NFC has pioneered the fabrication of a variety of fuels and briefed about the necessity of gearing up to meet the fuel requirements for the upcoming 700 MWe Reactors being commissioned at Kota, Rajasthan and Kakrapara, Gujarat and that of the 10 new Reactors recently announced by the Government of India.

Dr. Dinesh Srivastava, Dy Chief Executive (Fuels), NFC welcomed the gathering. G Kalyanakrishnan, Chief Executive, NFC highlighted various achievements of NFC during 2016-17 viz. highest ever production of 1512 Metric Tonnes (MT) of PHWR fuel assemblies, 1365 MT of Uranium Oxide Powder, 1154 MT of Zirconium Oxide Powder, 759 MT of Zirconium Sponge He further mentioned about other achievements like development of 3-D blending unit, vibratory bowl feeder system for automatic pellet feeding, installation and commissioning of automatic tube feeding system, design and fabrication of an automatic tube loading/ unloading system, modification in appendage feeding system, installation and commissioning of in-house fabricated Honing machine, installation of digital PC based wall thickness measurement system.

On this occasion, a corporate film of NFC has been launched and also the annual Highlights magazine of NFC was released by the Chief Guest. Awards for Excellence of Work were presented on this occasion.