Ranchi, May 23: Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar, here to attend the convocation of Birla Institute of Technology, on Wednesday said the state still has a chance of getting selected for setting up a nuclear power plant.

He was referring to the frequently raised demand by state politicians in view of uranium mining at Jadugoda, which has supplied the bulk of the raw material for the country’s nuclear programme.

Kakodkar, who also happens to be secretary to the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), said DAE’s sight selection committee is still studying all probable sights, including some in the states of Jharkhand and Bihar.

Jadugoda in East Singhbhum, he agreed, has the advantage of having not just uranium but also thousands of acres, which would be required for the plant. There is also opportunity to increase the mining activity there. With the existing infrastructure at Jadugoda, Nuclear Power Corporation of India would find it easier and cheaper to set up a plant at Jadugoda, he said.

But there are several other considerations that the sight selection committee will have to take into account.

Availability of water for cooling the reactors and ensuring that nuclear power plants are located away from earthquake-prone zones are just two of the various considerations the committee will have to study, said Kakodkar.

Finally, all things remaining the same, the government will have to choose a site which is deemed to be technically more feasible.

The installed capacity of nuclear power stations in the country is a meagre 4,120 MW, constituting just three per cent of the electricity generation in India.

With energy requirements likely to go up by 10 times in the next 50 years, there is pressure to augment generation of nuclear power.

While only government undertakings are now allowed to set up nuclear power plants, the possibility of involving private players is really a matter of “why, when and how”, he asserted.

Kakodkar said pressurised heavy water reactors are being set up in the first stage. In the second phase, fast-breeder reactors would ensure recycle of uranium for energy generation and in the third stage, thorium-uranium based reactors would be used in nuclear power generation.