India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has approved has the siting for the Mahi Banswara Rajasthan Atomic Power Project (MBRAPP) in Rajasthan. The siting consent is valid for five years. The plant will have four Indian-designed 700 MWe pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) at the site, near the village of Napla, in the Banswara district.
AERB said the Mahi Banswara site has undergone the reviews required under its regulations. It has consented to the siting of the four units subject to satisfactory compliance with conditions including obtaining environmental clearance from the “relevant competent authority”.
The siting consent is the first key stage in AERB’s licensing process for nuclear facilities. This is followed by construction, commissioning, operation and decommissioning. Siting consent requires ensuring the site is suitable for the facility, including from an engineering point of view. It includes reviews of the site, how the facility and the site will interact with each other, and its suitability for the emergency measures. Relevant studies were undertaken including geotechnical, hydrogeological and soil studies, and mapping of surrounding areas as well as an assessment of baseline natural background radiation.
AERB completed an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for MBRAPP in 2018. It concluded that the proposed plant “is designed with latest state of art technology so as to achieve minimum radioactive releases (within AERB norm) from air and water route and minimal release of conventional pollutants emitted from plant operation in form of air emissions, wastewater and noise levels”. In addition, “maximum re-use of wastewater has been envisaged”.
The EIA report “thoroughly assessed all the potential environmental impacts associated with the project. AERB noted: “The environmental impacts identified by the study are manageable. Site specific and practically suitable mitigation measures are recommended to mitigate the impacts and to comply with …stipulations/ norms with considerable margin. Further, a suitably designed monitoring plan has been provided to monitor and control the effectiveness of envisaged mitigation measures during the operation phase. These measures will ensure that any possible impacts is avoided and controlled before its occurrence.”
The Mahi Banswara units are to be developed under Anushakti Vidhyut Nigam Ltd (Ashvini), a joint venture between Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). Formation of the 51% NPCIL:49% NTPC joint venture set up to construct, own and operate nuclear power plants in India was approved by the government in 2024.
Currently only NPCIL and Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (Bhavini, set up to build and operate fast reactors) are legally allowed to own and operate NPPs. However, an amendment to the 1962 Atomic Energy Act in 2016 allowed public sector joint ventures.
In January, NTPC signed a Supplementary Joint Venture Agreement-2 (SJVA-2) with NPCIL. This builds upon an existing Joint Venture Agreement signed in 2010, and represents a strategic restructuring AshvinI. The agreement also facilitated the transfer of MBRAPP from NPCIL to Ashvini with the aim of strengthening the operational scope and resource base of the joint venture.
The MBRAPP units are among ten 700 MWe PHWRs that the Indian government has approved for construction under a fleet approach. The others are Kaiga NPP units 5&6 (in Karnataka), Gorakhpur NPP units 3&4 (Haryana), and Chutka units 1&2 (Madhyar Pradesh). Two 700 MWe PHWR units at Kakrapar, in Gujurat, are already in commercial operation. Rajasthan NPP unit 7, was connected to the grid in March, and construction of Rajasthan 8 is underway.
