The Kakrapar nuclear power station

New Delhi, Sept. 26: Nuclear power engineers have evaluated candidate sites for reactors in eastern India, but the small port town of Jaitapur on the west coast has become the newest site to get cabinet approval.

A senior nuclear power official declined to name specific eastern sites that have undergone evaluation, but indicated that they are in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

The official also declined to comment on a proposal, made a few years ago, to evaluate Bengal’s Sunderbans as a site for nuclear reactors. The plan was dropped following opposition from environmental groups.

“Several candidate sites across India have been evaluated for their suitability for reactors as part of routine activities,” he said.

Engineers analyse economics, environmental factors and seismicity, to determine the suitability of sites.

The Union cabinet on Thursday approved four sites for a pair of reactors each. Jaitapur in Maharashtra is a new site.

The other three ? Kakrapar in Gujarat, Rawatbhata in Rajasthan and Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu ? have either operating plants or under-construction reactors.

Nuclear power engineers say traditional energy economics dictated that a nuclear reactor located about 1,000 km from a coal pit and operating above a certain threshold capacity would be economically competitive with coal-fired thermal power plants.

However, the economics can change and there is a possibility of reactors coming up in eastern India in relatively close proximity to coal reserves in the future, the official said. Requests for reactors have come in from Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh among other states, he added.

The official said it was easier and cost-effective to build new reactors at sites that already have operating reactors. This strategy allows clusters of reactors to share common infrastructure.

Any site picked for a nuclear plant would also demand a 1.6-km radius zone where no human habitation or activity other than those related to the power plant would be allowed. Limited activities, such as cultivation or grazing, are allowed between the 1.6-km line and 5 km.

The Nuclear Power Corporation now operates 15 nuclear reactors that contribute about 3,300 MW of power.

Seven more reactors are under construction. These include two at Kaiga in Karnataka, two Russian-made reactors at Kudankulam and one at Tarapur.

The eight reactors to come up at the four sites approved last week will add 4,800 MW.