Tummalapalle Uranium project in Cuddapah district of Andhra Pradesh is in advance stage of commissioning,according to Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) Diwakar Acharya.

In fact,a large uranium reserve in the carbonate host rock in Cuddapah has been planned for development. “All clearances including approval of Govt. of India have been obtained. Construction activities for an underground mine upto a depth of 300m and a processing plant based on alkali leaching (under pressure) technology have been initiated”,says UCIL’s Tummalapalle Uranium project’s portal.

Diwakar who was speaking at a five-day International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inter-regional training course on Uranium exploration strategy, mining and processing techniques which commenced in Jamshedpur today, said sufficient uranium reserves are there to carry forward India’s nuclear power programme and observed that the future belonged to mineralisation of poor grade uranium ore.

Diwakar,louded IAEA for hosting the training course and said it was the first such event in the country . Jharkhand has been chosen because of “the good practices being followed at UCIL as well as the vast experiences it had.”

He expressed hope that UCIL,a public sector unit, which is equipped with skilled manpower and technique and is involved in the field of uranium exploration, mining and processing for over five decades in Singhbhum belt of Jharkhand, is bound to benefit from the training course.”It will give a platform to scientists, geologists and other stakeholders enaged in this field to share their experiences”,he said.

The training course was designed in such a way that the experts were to share experiences with freshers coming in the spectrum of nuclear science including Uranium exploration, mining and processing.During the next four days,they were slated to deliberate upon methods being followed in the field of mineralization, geological survey and economic and market condition.

Director of Atomic Minerals Directorate (AMD), Pratap Singh Parihar also spoke on the occasion.Henry Schnell, IAEA expert from Canada, was attending the event.