Has the Light Water Reactor (LWR), using enriched uranium as fuel, on board the submarine been started up?
Our nuclear steam supply system is ready 100 per cent. From our (DAE) side, everything is ready. We are only waiting for other systems to become operational so that we can start the commissioning activity of the reactor. I really do not know when the harbour trials will be done. The Navy will need three or four nuclear-powered submarines for this arm to be a viable force. Will you build more LWRs for these submarines? We are already doing that. I will not be able to tell you the number, but it is a fact that we are in that game. The next nuclear steam generating plants are getting ready for future applications. Where will the enriched uranium for these boats come from? There is only one Rare Materials Plant at Ratnahalli, near Mysore, to produce enriched uranium. Will the proposed Special Material Enrichment Facility in Chitradurga district in Karnataka be helpful? Chitradurga will come a little later, not immediately. Our Ratnahalli plant capacity has been enhanced. But more than that
