OREANDA-NEWS.There are 20 Nuclear Power Reactors in the country with a total installed capacity of 4780 MW. In addition, Unit-1 of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project, in Tamil Nadu with a capacity of 1000 MW was connected to grid in October 2013. It has so far generated 2825 Million Units (MUs) of electricity. The generation of electricity by the nuclear power reactors in the country was 35333 MUs in the year 2013-14, including 1106 Million units from Kudankulam-1.

The details are as follows:

(i) Additional Protocol with regard to safeguards.

(ii) Regional Cooperation Agreement (RCA) with 21 countries in the Asia Pacific Region and the International atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for collaboration in peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

(iii) Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership (GCNEP) of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) - for collaboration between IAEA and GCNEP for furthering the objectives of GCNEP.

Government plans/proposes to develop and carry forward the nuclear programme in the country.

The resources of xenotime, another rare-earth bearing mineral, are negligible in India. AMD has established about 2000 tonnes of xenotime-bearing heavy mineral concentrate containing 2% xenotime in the riverine heavy mineral placer deposits of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

Monazite is a mineral mainly containing rare earths and thorium-a prescribed substance to be handled by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). Accordingly, Indian Rare Earths Ltd. (IREL) wholly owned by the Govt. of India, under the administrative control of the Dept. of Atomic Energy (DAE) utilises monazite mainly for production of rare earth compounds, and thorium, as needed in the Department of Atomic Energy.

This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, PG & Pensions and in the Prime Minister’s Office Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.