Anuj Wankhede

Politicians have a habit and probably like to have a foot in the mouth disease. So be it. But an Indian politician has made such a huge fool of himself that it deserves contempt for its sheer imbecilic nature.

Mr Sharad Pawar (a former minister of great [dis]grace ) made a recent statement that the Tarapur Atomic Power Station (TAPS) had generated a lot of power for the state of Maharashtra and reduced the cost of electricity overall. This was reported well in the media How much more misleading can a senior and sadly failing leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) get? His statement lacks any modicum of the working of the TAPS and indicates how little these so called political power knowers actually know or care to know about the facts and the reality of nuclear energy (or any energy generation) on the earth – forget about India or its states.

Tarapur Atomic Power Station (T.A.P.S.) is located in Tarapur, Maharashtra town of (India).

It was initially constructed with two boiling water reactor (BWR) units of 210 MWe each initially by Bechtel and GE under the 1963 123 Agreement between India, the United States, and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The capacity of units 1 and 2 was reduced to 160 MWe later on due to technical difficulties. Units 1 and 2 were brought online for commercial operation on October 28, 1969 (Source Wikipedia)

Now let us look at the performance of the four reactors that how they make up TAPS and Mr. Sharad P(o)wers’ statements:

TAPS 1 Lifetime Load Factor 63.1%
TAPS 2 Lifetime Load Factor 63.9%
TAPS 3 Lifetime Load Factor 71%
TAPS 4 Lifetime Load Factor 60.9%

(Source IAEA PRIS Database)

This is the promise v/s delivery of the nuclear power projects in India. The cost of electricity is based on 100% load factors and not at half or quarter load factors as at TAPS.
Let is look at some more startling facts and figures about TAPS and to reach a conclusion for Mr Sharad Pawar.

Here is the ENERGY UNAVAILABILITY FACTOR for these four TAPS reactors:

APS 1 Lifetime Energy Unavailability Factor 32.1%
TAPS 2 Lifetime Energy Unavailability Factor 32.4%
TAPS 3 Lifetime Energy Unavailability Factor 26.2%
TAPS 4 Lifetime Energy Unavailability Factor 36.6%

(Source IAEA PRIS Database)

This is the REAL performance of the TAPS which Mr Pawar is so confident. What electricity has the power station generated as per the projections and the costs of electricity and how will Jaitapur perform versus such dismal figures. Probably coal fired power plants give a better operational performance than nuclear power does. (I will submit a similar co relation of the same soon. ) If 50-70% performance is to be the benchmark for Jaitapur, then Areva will be walking all the way to the banks having fooled Modi and his ilk into thinking that they have got a great deal. The Rafeal fighter air craft deal is a huge sell off since there is no technology transfer and so is the Areva Jaitapur deal. In fact, France will be dancing all the way to the Swiss banks having paid off the Indian politicians a small sum and gained massive returns for years to follow. How foolish of the Indian pink papers to gloat on the “great” Rafeal deal and the Areva contract when the reverse is true.

India gained nothing and lost a big time opportunity cost even as it could have bargained for a better deal with either France or some other nations like UK.

The so called fact that India needs additional fighter planes to fight Sino-Pak shows that India made a BIG BIG mistake in going for the Russian MIG’s and Sukhoi and then the “fact” that India needs more power is also because India did not make BIG BIG investenemts in Transmission and Distribution (T&D) infrastructure in the country. This is a scam worse than the 2G or coal scam as the Modi government is sucking India into a morass of foreign hands and at the same time taking of “Made in India”.

The cost of power from Nuclear power stations is based on their BASE load factor which is PEAK or 100% power output (excluding maintenance and routine downtime). So, if NPP’s in India are operating at such low load factors, what is the REAL cost of power supplied by them Mr. Sharad Pawar and Mr. Modi? Are you the energy experts to tell us that base load energy is the solution for India rather than Peaking power plants suitable for cities? Base load is good for largely industrialized nations (but even Germany has given up on it and Japan survives over three years without nuclear.) ?Base load is not the solution for India under ANY circumstances because India needs localized and called as micro grid or grid connected power generation which actually works in Mr. Modi’s Gujarat state and which exports electricity to other states!!!

But there is more….There is a History of Mr. Sharad Pawar as discussed at the end and as per Wikipedia which include:(all details of them at the end of this article)

Links to criminals
Stamp paper scam:
Controversial wheat imports:
Criticism of agricultural produce prices:
Farmer suicides
Promotion of endosulfan
Land allotment:
IPL exemption from tax controversy:
Controversy faced after assets declaration:
Nira Radia’s allegations:
Lavasa:
2010 Pune bombing:

Such is the person who is even talking of the benefits of nuclear energy!!! Look at the house built for a project affected person even after 40 years. Uninhabitable and insane….nobody could ever live in this so called “development” of the nation.

Ever since TAPS 1 took off, fishing in the area was banned or dis banded for miles of fishing, the high temperature of the water release from the BWR killed most fish and the environment degraded badly and most fisherfolk were rendered jobless. The same happened due to high tension electrical lines over farms where the produce dipped to almost nil. The output from TAPS meanwhile remained almost nil and the people around the TAPS region were left homeless and jobless despite promises by the Indian government of jobs. All they got were temporary jobs on contract for 11 months and then thrown out when found unsuitable.

This is the reality of TAPS.

And Mr, Pawar, for your kind knowledge, look at these figures and then make your stupid comments about TAPS being beneficial to Maharashtra. You will realize your own stupidity (not that it matters to a politician like you who is so thick skinned)

Do you know anything about Power Exchanges and what DSM, IPX or PXIL mean??? (All you know Mr Pawar, is probably the IPL)

Do you know a thing about Inter-state Transmission Corridor for Day-Ahead Market on Power Exchanges (or as Agricultural Minister all you know is commodity markets and prices of onions which you rigged?)

Do you know what “Market Splitting” is in the power sector? (Guess all you know is market manipulation)

Do you know what Volume and Price of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) mean? (Not the volume rate of cotton and sugar exchange prices to benefit your cronies)

If powerful ministers know nothing about the power sector except how to allot free power to rich farmers and deny power to the poor and force them to use hand pumps, then God help this blessed land. Blessed by the likes of Sharad Pawar who has his dirty paws into every shady deal and talks as if he even can show TAPS on the map of India…..