Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will lay the foundation stone on Monday for a nuclear power project near Gorakhpur village in Fatehbad district of Haryana.

The project will comprise two reactors of 700 MWe each. They are Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) that will use natural uranium as fuel and heavy water as both coolant and moderator.

Officials of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) said here today that the Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Project (GHAVP) was completely safe and the apprehensions on its safety were fa

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who will be inaugurating the nuclear power plant on January 13 at Gorakhpur village in Haryana, is likely to be greeted by resolute environmentalists opposing the pro

Gorakhpur nuclear plant inauguration on Jan 13

When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrives in Gorakhpur of Fatehabad district to inaugurate Haryana’s first nuclear power station, he is likely to be greeted by determined environmentalists opposed to the plant.

About an hour's drive from the industrial city of Hisar, a village with rich fertile land spread across hundreds of acres is awaiting a rebirth. Ask anyone in Gorakhpur about their future, most will reply with a hint of what is predestined: "parmanu yug (nuclear age) has come."

Yet there are doubters with concerns as serious as the future of the crops and the water the village drinks when the 4X700 MW nuclear plant comes up. The plant has already got the conditional environmental go-ahead from the Centre.

NPCIL already awaits important clearances from Centre

Even as the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) awaits some important clearances from the Centre prior to the formal launch of Haryana's first nuclear power project at Gorakhpur in Fatehabad, anti-nuclear power forces have also started mobilising against the project.

A major hurdle in the way of setting up of a nuclear power plant at Gorakhpur in Fatehabad is over as the Environment Ministry has finally granted a conditional green clearance to the project.

A nuclear power plant proposed to be set up in Haryana is one step short of getting the green clearance with a high-level panel of the environment ministry giving conditional nod.

The decision to recommend green clearance to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) proposal for setting up a Rs 23,502 crore nuclear power plant in Fatehabad district was taken at a recent meeting of expert appraisal committee on environmental appraisal of nuclear power projects, official sources said.