Low on uranium, 5 n-power units are shut early Kandula Subramaniam Posted online: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 0000 hrs NPCIL Scheduled maintenance shutdown advanced to give authorities time to arrange for uranium supply New Delhi, October 23: Faced with an acute shortage of uranium to run existing power stations, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd has advanced its maintenance schedule and started shutting down individual power units. Usually, these units are shut down in a staggered manner but this time they have been bunched together so that authorities get time to arrange for uranium supplies. Merkel to visit next week, unlikely to focus on n-dealTo fracture further, Left works on another deal-with UNPAIts hands are tied but UPA tries to put foot downWill know on deal today, panel findings only after Diwali: CPMLeft wants Govt to declare n-deal is off Over the past few weeks, as many as five units amounting to 1000 MW of the total 4000 MW were shut down on account of upkeep of plants: two units from Tarapur (Maharashtra) and one each from Kaiga (Karnataka), Kalpakkam (Tamil Nadu) and Kakrapar (Gujarat). Already, most of the plants that were running at 90-95 per cent capacity until last year are now down to 50-70 per cent reflecting the serious uranium crisis facing the country. With the nuclear deal taking more and more time, the Indian programme has to depend on domestic uranium supplies which show few signs of matching the efficiency of reactors. In short, the choking of the indigenous programme due to fuel shortage is soon becoming a reality.