Areva keen to supply EPR to India

Mumbai: French nuclear conglomerate, Areva, is keen to supply European Pressurised Reactors (EPR) to India. Utilities in Finland, China and France are already building these 1,600-MW advance reactors.

EPRs are third-generation nuclear fission pressurised water reactor. Mr Patrick Teyssier, Front End Manager, Areva Group, talking to media persons on the sidelines of an India Nuclear Society function, said that the company can offer about six EPRs by 2020, he said.

He said that Areva was keenly looking at opportunities in the Indian nuclear sector for which the India office has been recently setup.

The company is also talking to private sector companies like Reliance Power and Tata group for equipment supply, Mr Teyssier said.

Also talking to the media, Mr A.M. Naik, Chairman and Managing Director of L&T Ltd, said that the company was going ahead independently with its Rs 2,000-crore forging venture.

The unit will come up in Hazira, Gujarat, in 30 months. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) could become a joint venture partner in the future, he said.

The need for a separate unit for nuclear forging was envisaged by NPCIL to address prolonged delays in delivery of jobs by forging companies. In some instances, work gets delayed by as much as six years.