GUWAHATI (Commodity Online): Finally, ONGC has zeroed in on a location in Assam and has submitted a proposal to Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL) for jointly mining uranium.

The public sector oil major has an agreement in place with UCIL to pursue exploration and exploitation of uranium resources.

ONGC held several discussions with the scientists of UCIL and Atomic Mineral Division, a unit of the DAE. Once UCIL has examined the data, the two will work out the next course of action. ONGC has created a team under the aegis of its Energy Centre which is looking into the venture.

The two (ONGC-UCIL) have already set up a steering committee for evolving a time-bound programme for joint prospecting and mining, a DAE official said.

The role of ONGC is to investigate the logs (log data) of its old wells and from the radioactive indications, identify the suitable prospects for exploration and exploitation of uranium.

The MoU with UCIL exposes ONGC to undertaking ventures abroad also, but ONGC would initially like to focus on opportunities available in the domestic region.

The move to induct new players such as ONGC into the strategic uranium mining sector, where currently UCIL has a virtual monopoly, is aimed at speeding up the domestic mining effort.

It comes in the wake of a widening gap between fuel requirement and availability for the country’s operating nuclear power plants.

The country has an estimated 61,000 tonnes of uranium reserves.

Efforts are on to more than double uranium reserves for the nuclear energy programme.

The Cabinet had cleared an additional spend of Rs 200 crore late last year on aiding exploration and prospecting to boost uranium supplies by an additional 75,000 tonnes.

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