An Overview of R&D and Technology Development activities of Nuclear Power Corporation of India

The Directorate of Technology Development (DTD) of Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) has four verticals of R&D facilities, Remote Tooling, Indigenisation and Construction Time Minimization. The R&D Facilities located at Corporate R&D Centre, Tarapur have projects related to design verification of new systems and equipment for enhanced safety of 700 MWe PHWRs and post Fukushima measures for the operating units.  

Remote Tooling activities encompass inspection of reactor channels and repair, retrieval of critical items in high radiation environ of operating units.  
Prior to 2010, some of the critical raw materials and equipment for the indigenous program were imported.  The indigenisation effort of NPCIL has established capabilities within the country for many of the hitherto imported items. With the proposed large growth of nuclear power in India there would be significant capital investments for these new projects.  Minimising their construction time is identified as highest economic impact activity. This is being addressed by exploring innovative ideas and techniques to speed up the construction. 

This talk will cover the salient overview of above activities towards achieving safe, reliable and speedy growth of Nuclear Power Programme of India.

About the Speaker:

Mr. Sabir F. Vhora took over as the Executive Director (Technology Development) of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) in 2013. He was earlier responsible for arriving at Enhanced Safety concepts for the 700 MWe PHWR which became especially relevant after Fukushima, design of Primary system for reliable operation of 220MWe and 540 MWe Reactors and Technical Assignment of to be imported LWRs. He has extensive experience in commissioning of a significant number of PHWRs. His present focus is on reduced construction time of nuclear power projects by adopting Modular construction techniques, adopting latest technology for speedy manufacture of major Nuclear equipment on the critical path as well as  proposing improved organizational norms to facilitate faster execution.

Mr. Vhora has a B.Sc.(Engg) Honours Degree in Nuclear Engineering from University of London, is a recipient of Homi Bhabha Award from Silver Jubilee batch of BARC training school in Mechanical Engineering in 1982 and member of the board of JV NPCIL and Indian Oil Nuclear Energy Corporation Ltd (NINECL).