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India is short of N-fuel


Chennai May 29: For the first time, a top executive of the nuclear power establishment has urged early conclusion of the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal to help ease the acute shortage of uranium fuel, which is causing a steep drop in nuclear power production to less than 50 per cent of capacity.
“The reactors which are in operation stream function at 48 per cent efficiency due to lack of the uranium fuel. Due to a host of reasons, we are facing a severe shortage,” said Dr Shreyans Kumar Jain, chairman and managing director, Nuclear Power Corpo-ration of India.

Dr Jain attributed the drastic fall in nuclear power production to the severe shortage of uranium. “You can call it shortage of uranium. We need uranium very badly,” Dr Jain said. He called for finalisation of the Indo-US nuclear deal to offset the dismal performance of the nuclear reactors. Dr Jain said the deal would help the country get more uranium. “Any CMD will have a dream that the power generation through the source which he is handling should increase at a very fast pace. You should look for very high-capacity addition. Yes. I am looking for uranium.”