Public sector mining-cum-power generation company, NLC India, has announced an agreement with Électricité de France (EDF) of France for “exploring potential development of nuclear projects in India.” This comes barely a month after a similar agreement between India’s biggest government-owned power major, NTPC, and EDF.
A press release from NLC India notes that the French government-owned EDF is the largest nuclear operator globally and has experience operating pressurised water reactors.
NLC India wants to explore projects based on the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR—also called ‘evolutionary power reactor’), as well as small modular reactor technologies.
“The EPR is a type of nuclear reactor that belongs to the third generation of pressurised water reactors (PWRs) designed by Framatome and EDF in France, which are built on the strengths of earlier models while incorporating advanced safety features and greater efficiency,” the release says.
It notes that India has an ambitious target of achieving 100 GW of Nuclear power capacity by 2047 to support its “Viksit Bharat” and “Net Zero Carbon”.
Meanwhile, sources in NLC India have told businessline that the company will not pursue its lignite-to-methanol project, as it is too expensive. The company had been considering the ₹4,400-crore project to produce 4 lakh tons of methanol annually, using 2.5 million tonnes of lignite.