Gorakhpur Nuclear Power Plant


The Gorakhpur Nuclear Power Plant or the Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Pariyojana is a proposed nuclear power plant to be built on a area west of Gorakhpur village of Fatehabad district of Haryana.
The foundation stone of the 2800 Megawatt nuclear power plant was laid on 13 January 2014. The first phase of the project will have an installed capacity of 1400 MW and is expected to be completed by 2025 The second phase will start after that which will double the capacity to 2800 MW.

History

One year after laying the foundation stone, there was no reactor construction activity. NPCIL carried out only certain pre-project activities on the land. There were problems with the Environment Court at Kurukshetra and over the possession of 28 acres, as owners of the land refused to accept compensation and to vacate the land. Officials said that the government was suffering a financial loss of Rs 7 to 8 crore per day for the delay of the project.
On May 27, 2015, a police force evicted farmers living on a piece of land acquired by the NPCIL. Houses were razed, crops destroyed, and the farmers belongings and cattle carted away. In 2012, NPCIL acquired over of land in Gorakhpur, Kajal Heri and Badopal for the setting up of nuclear power plant. The corporation had taken possession of the major part of land, but farmers owning 28 acres had refused the compensation and were not vacating the land.
In March 2016, still only preparatory activities were made.
NPCIL has started the procurement activities for this project. Recently BHEL was given order for supply of steam generators to this project.
Many reports have come out about foreign funded NGOs protesting against the power plant construction. Similar attempts were seen from vested interests to sabotage the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in the past.

Design and specification

The proposed 700 MW PHWR reactors are indigenous and similar to the ones currently under construction in Kakrapar Atomic Power Station and Rajasthan Atomic Power Station. Also, the reactor size and the design features of 700 MW are similar to that of 540 MWe of Tarapur Atomic Power Station 3 & 4 Units, except that partial boiling of the coolant is up to about 3% at the coolant channel exit has been allowed.

Cost and economics

Being built by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India, the project is estimated to cost 20,594 Crore as of January 2014.