India presently has 22 nuclear power plants in the country for electricity generation and four for research purposes are operational in the country, however, no nuclear accident has been reported so far. There have been two industrial accidents in the non-nuclear working areas of the nuclear power plants or projects under construction resulting in two fatalities during the last three years.
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh told Rajya Sabha in a written reply on Thursday.
“There has not been any nuclear accident in Indian Nuclear Power Reactors, so far, impacting environment in public domain or loss of life,” Dr. Singh said. Dr Singh, however, said that the two casualties were reported in the accident in non-nuclear sites of the nuclear reactors.
Apart from the 22 power generating nuclear reactors, there are four research reactors working in India are 100 MW Research Reactor ‘Dhruva’ for research in the field of Radio Isotope and Radio Pharmaceutical Production; Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) for carrying out studies related to stage II nuclear power programme; 100 W research reactor called Critical Facilityfor core physics experiments related to Advanced Heavy Water Reactors (AHWR) for stage III nuclear power programme and research reactor fuelled with Uranium-233 Kalpakkam Mini Reactor (KAMINI) for core physics studies for the stage III nuclear power Programme.
