Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, has announced plans to construct 10 domestically designed pressurised heavy water reactors with a total capacity of 7GW.
India currently generates 6.8GW of power from 22 reactors, and has about the same amount of capacity under construction and scheduled to complete in the early 2020s. Â
The construction of the heavy water reactors will create manufacturing orders of close to $11bn, as well as 33,400 jobs in direct and indirect employment.
The project is part of the "Make in India" initiative. Modi said it would be a "testament to the rapid advances achieved by India’s nuclear scientific community and industry".
He added: "This project will bring about substantial economies of scale and maximise cost and time efficiencies by adopting fleet mode for execution.
"It will be a major step towards strengthening India’s credentials as a major nuclear manufacturing powerhouse."
Image: Panchgani, India (Nitish Kadam/Unsplash)
