He agreed that small light water reactor (LWR) with a capacity of up to 100 MW -- similar to the one designed and developed to power India's first nuclear submarine INS Arihant that was launched last Sunday -- to generate electricity for rural areas was an interesting possibility. But, he added, the nuclear establishment has no such plans.

'Generation of power from such small plants will be costly. Our immediate focus is to import LWRs so as to build the nuclear power capacity at a quick pace.'

He said for LWRs for power generation would require a large-scale enrichment facility and 'we didn't take that decision as uranium availability is low and insufficient and hence decided on pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR) in the first stage'.

He said the imported LWRs will get lifetime fuel supplies from the country of import.

'If needed, we will put up a uranium enrichment facility,' Kakodkar said.

He further said the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, is focussed on developing high-temperature reactors for power generation, propulsion and even development of alternative fuel like hydrogen.

Srikumar Banerjee, BARC director and AEC member, added: 'High-temperature reactors can split water and produce hydrogen that is expected to become the fuel of the future.'

He said the current PHWRs operate at 300 degree centigrade while in the case of fast reactors it is 500 degrees. 'When the reactor temperature goes up to 900 degree the operating efficiency will go up further,' Banerjee added.

India's nuclear establishment is looking at building 700 MW PHWRs. The government has sanctioned construction of four units and four more units are being planned.