NPCIL in strategic partnership to advance nuclear development in Maharashtra

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited and the Maharashtra Institution for Transformation will proactively facilitate and extend cooperation, Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis said at the 17 November signing ceremony.

Maharashtra is the first Indian state to enter into such an MoU, and the minister assured the state's government support. A statement from the chief minister's office said the key obectives of the MoU were:

• Augment non-fossil energy capacity: Support Maharashtra's transition toward clean, reliable, and large-scale nuclear power generation
• Technology collaboration: Enable design, development, and commissioning of a nuclear power plant using safe, sustainable, and economically viable technologies in compliance with guidelines from India's Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and Department of Atomic Energy
• Make in Maharashtra initiative: Explore establishment of a reactor assembly line to promote local manufacturing and technology self-reliance
• Institutional facilitation: Ensure policy, regulatory, and inter-departmental coordination through Maharashtra Institution for Transformation and the Energy Department, Government of Maharashtra

Fadnavis said clean energy was "the most important fuel" for data centres. Maharashtra accounts for a share of about 50-60% of India's data capacity, and it is continuously growing, he added. "Maharashtra will benefit from the experience of NPCIL in this field. The state government will take initiative in this project and will provide all the necessary cooperation," he said.

A site at Jaitapur in Maharashtra has been proposed for a plant with six French-designed EPR-units, which - with an installed capacity of 9.6 GWe - would be the most powerful nuclear power plant in the world. The state is also home to India's oldest operating nuclear reactors - two small boiling water reactors at Tarapur, which have been in service since 1969. Two pressurised heavy water reactors are also in operation at Tarapur.

"This strategic partnership reinforces NPCIL’s commitment to deliver safe, reliable, and sustainable nuclear power, supporting India’s long-term clean energy and energy-security objectives," the company said.