India’s success in connecting its largest domestically-built nuclear reactor to the grid is a boost for plans to deploy the technology to help the world’s third-biggest polluter limit emissions, according to the official overseeing the plans.
The 700-megawatt pressurized heavy water reactor of the Kakrapar Atomic Power Station, located in the western state of Gujarat, is the first of 16 planned units that will help balance the grid against growing intermittent renewable generation, according to K.N. Vyas, India’s atomic energy secretary.
“Renewables are less capital intensive and can be implemented much more quickly. Yet, they need to be balanced with more stable power,” Vyas said in a phone interview. “Nuclear provides clean base load power and that makes it an important element of our climate strategy.”
