Kalpakkam (Tamil Nadu), Aug 2 - Uranium shortage faced by Indian atomic power plants is expected to end by 2012-13 with the expansion of existing uranium mines and mills and development of new ones, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chairman Anil Kakodkar said here Sunday.

'The availability of uranium is improving as we have expanded the capacity of a mill at Jaduguda (in Jharkhand). The PLF of NPCIL's power plants is going up and it will be around 55 percent by FY2010 and 65 percent the next year as uranium availability continues to improve,' Kakodkar told reporters at Kalpakkam, about 45 km from Chennai.

The plant load factor (PLF) of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited's (NPCIL) power plants had gone below 50 percent in recent times owing to shortage of uranium. The company has a capacity to generate 4,120MW of atomic power.

The government-owned Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) is operating five underground mines in Jharkhand at Jaduguda, Bhatin, Narwapahar, Turamdih and Bagjata; an opencast mine at Bandhurang and two processing plants at Jaduguda and Turamdih.

Construction activities are on for setting up a mine at Mohuldih in Jharkhand and a mine and mill at Tummalapalli in the Cuddapah district of Andhra Pradesh.

UCIL proposes to set up a mine and mill at Kylleng Pyndengsohiong Mawthabah in the West Khasi Hills district in Meghalaya.

In addition, it also proposes to set up mines and mills at Lambapur-Peddagattu in the Nalgonda district, Andhra Pradesh, and a mine at Gogi in Karnataka.

Kakodkar said the Thumalapalli project will be ready by 2013 and exploratory work is on in Meghalaya and Karnataka. The new mill at Turamdih in Jharkhand will be completed soon.

He said two more units of nuclear power plants of 220 MW each in Rajasthan and one unit in Kaiga, Karnataka, are expected to go onstream soon.