India's biggest uranium processing plant inaugurated

JAMSHEDPUR: The country's biggest uranium processing plant was inaugurated by Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar at Turamdih on the outskirts of the steel city here.

The Rs 350-crore plant, built under Uranium Corporation of India Limited's (UCIL) ongoing uranium augmentation programme, was the second processing plant of UCIL, a PSU under the Department of Atomic Energy.

The plant has uranium ore processing capacity of 3,000 tonne per day.

The uranium ore extracted from its underground Turamdih and Mohuldih as well as open cast mine at Banduhurang will be processed at the new plant.

The capacity of UCIL's first processing plant at Jadugora, inaugurated in 1967, was increased to 2,090 tons per day from the initial 1,200 tons, UCIL sources said.

UCIL presently operates four underground mines - Jadugora, Bhatin, Narwapahar and Turamdih - and the Jadugora plant (all in East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand).

Kakodkar also inaugurated the Banduhurang open-cast mine and laid foundation stone for UCIL's proposed Mohuldih uranium mine located in the Saraikela-Kharswan district of the state.

While the corporation's first open-cast mine, Banduhurang, would produce 2,400 tons uranium ore per day, the projected capacity of Mohuldih underground mining project

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