Jindal Group is holding talks with international nuclear technology players such as French multinational EDF, US-based Westinghouse and Russian state player Rosatom as part of its Rs 1.8 lakh crore nuclear investment plan.
The Naveen Jindal Group announced to build 18 GW of nuclear power capacity over the next two decades and is looking at a mix of capacity starting from 220 MW to 1600 MW as part of its planned decarbonisation roadmap.
“We are identifying technology with international companies like EDF, Rosatom, Westinghouse and others. We are in touch with them and are evaluating all this technology thoroughly,” said Naveen Ahlawat, Head – Sustainability & Decarbonization, Jindal Steel.
The company is also scouting for land, which is key for the off-take of nuclear power projects due to the requirement of maintaining a certain distance from habitation for these projects.
“We are qualifying the land in terms of getting the seismic work done and the geotechnical work done. We have already more or less cleared the initial warming activities. We have started the environmental impact assessment studies and are sort of accelerating this overall movement,” he said.
The company, as part of its investment, is eyeing technology for the next two decades and is exploring a mix of capacity ranging from 220 MW small modular reactors, 700 Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), Rosatam 1200 MW VVR reactors, to 1650 MW EDF reactors.
“The private players in India are starting for the first time. So at least, we start to do the warming up for the initial one pair, at least one pair, meaning two reactors, because all the things come in pairs and then you sort of go for mix. The good thing is that there is no playbook, and you have to write your own playbook. You need to strategize yourself,” he further explains.
Ahlawat says Jindal Steel is absolutely technology agnostic in nuclear, as our requirement is for bigger reactors, and we are evaluating all the potential and possible technologies available in the world.
