Jitendra Singh, minister of state, made the announcement in an official communication to Indian parliament in reply to questions by legislators. According to Mr Singh, the new power station will be the country’s largest with a generating capacity of 9,900 MW.
He said at the moment the Indian government is still in the process of holding commercial and technical discussions with France on the matter.
According to the Indian Express, Mr Singh said nuclear power is clean and environment friendly, and has “huge potential to ensure the country’s long-term energy security on a sustainable basis.”
In April, French state-controlled power group EDF said it had made a binding offer to build six of its 1,600-MW EPR units in India.
India has about 7 GW of installed nuclear capacity, but an International Energy Agency report said this could increase to 31-36 GW by 2040. Nuclear generation provided just about 3% of the country’s electricity in 2020, with 48% coming from burning coal.
The country has 23 nuclear power plants in commercial operation and six under construction – one at Kakrapar, two at Kudankulam (by Russia), two at Rajasthan and a prototype fast breeder reactor at the Madras nuclear site.
