India Accelerates Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) Growth with Indigenous Distillation Columns by M/s TEMA India, Backed by BARC-NPCIL Expertise

India Accelerates Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) Growth with Indigenous Distillation Columns by M/s TEMA India, Backed by BARC-NPCIL Expertise

Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) are going to be the mainstay of Indian Nuclear Power program. Heavy Water production and enrichment to reactor grade requires ultra-high efficiency vacuum distillation columns. BARC has perfected the technology of making efficient structured packings, used in these columns, having very high wettability and surface area; and with very low pressure drop. Over the last 3 decades, about 35 such columns have been fabricated in-house in BARC and supplied to NPCIL. These indigenously developed columns have shown excellent and reliable performance at reactor sites for over 3 decades, thus establishing their merit as an economical import substitute and also embodying the “Make in India” philosophy of the Government.

As India is all set to expand its nuclear fleet by building several more PHWRS within the next decade, the need for this technology is immense. In order to support the accelerated demand for these speciality columns, it was felt that the Indian industry be also engaged in manufacture and supply of these columns, to augment the capabilities available within BARC. The full technical know-how was formally shared with the industry through the technology transfer mechanism.

Through a stringent techno-commercial evaluation, NPCIL has placed order on M/s TEMA India Pvt. Ltd. for manufacturing of high-efficiency distillation columns, for the upcoming six 700 MWe PHWRs at Gorakhpur and Kaiga. M/s TEMA India is a globally recognized designer and manufacturer of high-end shell and tube heat exchangers, catering to the needs of chemical industries and plants. Under the guidance of engineers from BARC and NPCIL, Nuclear Division of M/s TEMA India have developed a state-of-the-art manufacturing power facility at Achhad, Maharashtra.

Dr Ajit Kumar Mohanty, Secretary, DAE and Chairman, AEC lauded the efforts by NPCIL and BARC along with engineers of M/s TEMA and mentioned that this is yet another good example of involving the private sector in commercialization of deep tech DAE technologies.

The inauguration of the manufacturing facility and the flagging-off ceremony of the first consignment of eight sections of distillation columns was done by Shri Rajesh V, Director, Technical, NPCIL and Shri K. T. Shenoy, Director, Chemical Engineering Group, BARC in the august presence of NPCIL, BARC and M/s TEMA India officials.