NEW DELHI: The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) should seek additional funds for the prestigious Koodankulam nuclear power project in Tamil Nadu as well as for other crucial schemes, a Parliamentary Standing Committee has said.

The current outlay appears to be inadequate, according to the committee, which examined the demand for grants for the country's atomic energy programme for the current fiscal year.

Expressing its "serious concern" over curtailment of funds for the atomic energy sector as it could delay the attempt to increase the contribution of nuclear power in total power production, the panel wanted the DAE to take up the issue of "persistent reduction" in allocation with the Finance Ministry.

The panel also took note of the DAE's submission that the shortfall for nuclear power schemes will be reviewed at the revised estimates stage depending on the necessity of funds, which is mainly for the Russian credit for the ongoing Koodankulam project. In the case of other projects, it pointed out that any curtailment of funds to institutes or for operational and maintenance reasons slows down the pace of sustained growth attained in the previous years.

The DAE was asked to strengthen the existing reviewing mechanism for monitoring the progress of the ongoing scheme to eliminate the scope of shortage or surrender of funds at a later stage. Of the total outlay of Rs.4,125 crore for nuclear power schemes in the current fiscal, Rs.1,418 crore has been set aside for the externally aided projects at Koodankulam being executed by the Nuclear Power Corporation with the assistance of Russia.

Under construction

At present, six reactors at three sites — 2x1000 MWe light water reactors at Koodankulam, 2x220 MWe pressurised heavy water (PHW) reactors at Kaiga (units 3 & 4) and 2x220 MWe PHW at Rajasthan (units 5 & 6) — are under construction at an estimated cost of about Rs.20,000 crore. Of the six, the two Koodankulam units will cost over Rs.13,000 crore and are to be completed by December 2007 and December 2008 respectively.

Kaiga-3 reactor attained criticality in February this year, a month ahead of schedule. The DAE was commended for its early completion as well as the progress made on the construction of the other five reactors.

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