The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : N-energy is a must: U.R. Rao

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 26, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

N-energy is a must: U.R. Rao

Special Correspondent

‘We have no alternatives to meet the increasing demand for energy’

— Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

For N-energy: Chairman of the Karnataka Science and Technology Academy, U.R. Rao (right); Chairman of the Legislative Council, B.K. Chandrashekar (second from right); the former Minister, G. Parameshwar (second from left); and Abdul Azeem, MLC, at a workshop on ‘Global warming’ in Bangalore on Thursday.

BANGALORE: Noted space scientist U.R. Rao on Thursday said nuclear energy was very important to meet the increasing energy demands of the country.

Prof. Rao inaugurated a workshop on ‘Global warming’ organised by the Legislative Council here and said the country was facing a severe energy crisis and to tackle the problem “nuclear energy is a must”. “We have no alternatives to meet the increasing demand for energy. We need energy and nuclear energy is a must,” he said.

Unlike other sources of energy, “nuclear energy is clean and environmentally safe.” There was a policy problem in signing a nuclear deal with the United States, but not with nuclear energy. During peak hours, the country was facing power shortage to the tune of 14 to 15 per cent. The country needed to add energy to meet the increased demand in industrial and agricultural sectors, said the former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Stating that the U.S. was not doing any favour to India by pushing the nuclear deal, Prof. Rao said the U.S. wanted to sign the deal for promoting its commercial and geo-political interests. “Nuclear energy has zero emission and would be useful in meeting the energy demands. “As a next strategy (to meet energy demands and clean environment), we need to pursue nuclear energy,” he said.

Solar and wind energy were economically unviable and there were difficulties involved in transmission and distribution of both sources of energy.

Technology had not progressed much in tapping solar and wind energy in the country, Prof. Rao, who is also chairman of Karnataka Science and Technology Academy, said.

Referring to externalities involved in coal energy, he said not much research had been done in development of coal energy, which was environmentally more hazardous. Blaming the developed countries such as the U.S, the U.K., France, Germany and Singapore for climate change and global warming, the scientist said a major impact of climate change was increase in sea level and threat of coastal flooding.

The recurring floods, droughts, erratic monsoon and rise in night temperature were also due to global warming, and parts of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh had been affected by frequent floods in recent years, Prof. Rao noted.

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