GE Hitachi prepares for Indian nuclear projects

GE Hitachi signed a preliminary agreement with Tata Consulting Engineers in support of its future nuclear projects in India.

The two groups will to explore potential project design and workforce development opportunities.

The agreement sets the stage for the companies to collaborate in areas such as workforce skills identification and development, as well as early feasibility design studies, product and project engineering work.

India’s government has identified two possible sites for a potential new station featuring multiple reactors based on GEH’s 1,520-megawatt ESBWR model. The sites are located in the western state of Gujarat and southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

India currently has 19 reactors that generate a combined 4,560 MWe but plans to expand its installed nuclear generating capacity to 20,000 MWe by 2020 and to 63,000 MW by 2032.

“As India prepares to build new reactor projects, TCE is doing its part by working with experienced nuclear industry companies like GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy to help ensure that India has the necessary project resources in place to build and operate new nuclear reactors,” said R. Srinivasan, CEO and managing director of TCE.

The agreement helps create the foundation for leveraging India’s domestic engineering capabilities while supporting domestic employment opportunities. It also would enable GEH to increase the local content of its ESBWR product offering for its customer, state-owned utility Nuclear Power Corporation of India, Ltd.

“We are excited at the prospect of working with TCE on our future ESBWR projects. TCE has the proven engineering and industrial expertise to support the broad infrastructure requirements of nuclear power plant projects,” said Danny Roderick, GEH’s senior vice president for nuclear plant projects.