IMPLEMENTATION AND NEED OF NU-HYDRO POWER PLANTS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES LIKE INDIA

摘要

India has a major energy deficit in terms of its requirement of energy to the supply available. According to a recent report of Central Electricity Authority (CEA) India faced a huge power deficit of over 12,000 MW during the peak hours in the last financial year. Southern region of India was worst affected by power shortage during the period as demand for electricity overshot by 6,052 MW against availability of 31,586 MW during the peak hours. To overcome this deficit India has to utilise its resources with optimum outputs. With the ever rising population of India the demand will be rising to match up to that demand it has to come up with new and unique eco-friendly ways to generate power. The site selection for nuclear power plants has been an issue of public concern all over India. One way to resolve this issue is to combine the hydro and nuclear power plants as hydro power sites are generally available in not very densely populated areas of the country. The method we propose to combine the hydro and nuclear power is rather unique and has not been implemented yet. The whole proposal is to build floating nuclear power plants (already operational in Russia) to be kept in the reservoir of the hydro power plants. This line of floating nuclear power plants will kept at the boundaries of the canals and can be kept in a special catchment area for them. The availability of water in the river ensures smooth operation of the floating nuclear power plants. Many small floating nuclear power plants will be easier to handle and can be shut down in the case of floods by closing its catchment area and just allowing enough water to pass for its decay heat removal system. This floating type nuclear power plants will be immune to earth quakes as they are floating, we just have to make its catchment areas earthquake resistant. PWR reactors are used for these types of plants. These power plants can be connected to the grid for hydro power already available at the hydro plant, they will enhance the power generating capacity of the power plant, we can also add newer floating plants to boost up the generation depending upon the size of the reservoir and canal length near the reservoir having a minimum depth for this floating plants to function properly. This paper tries to give futuristic eco-friendly and a new safer way to generate power to mitigate the energy deficit prevailing in India and also answer the public concerns over the site of the nuclear plants. The paper tries to find the feasibility of such a plan in India, through a study of the Sardar Sarovar hydro power station, situated in Narmada district of Gujarat, India. The proposed model can take India closer to energy security in the next 10 to 15 years which is a necessity for India to make economic progress in the upcoming years.