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“Nuclear deal must for energy security”

Jairam Ramesh

NEW DELHI: As the energy demand in the country was growing by leaps and bounds, the India-United States nuclear deal was important to meet the nation’s energy needs and get access to uranium from abroad, Minister of State for Power Jairam Ramesh told journalists on the sidelines of a NTPC function here on Monday.

Mr. Ramesh said the country faced severe uranium shortage and its nuclear plants were running at only 50 per cent capacity. To get access to uranium reserves and sources around the world, it was important that the deal materialised.

“We have to rely on outside sources for uranium supply as our domestic production is not enough to meet our present and future needs,” he added.

Mr. Ramesh said at present India had a nuclear power capacity of 3700 MW and it was planned to increase it to 20,000 MW in the next 20 years. However, this was possible only if the country got access to uranium reserves and supply from abroad.

In addition to the uranium factor, the other major source of future energy was the fast breeder reactor, but all these were inter-linked. Uranium reserves were found in Meghalaya but they could not be explored due to strong opposition at the local level. Uranium reserves were also found in Andhra Pradesh but they were not enough, he said.

The other major source of energy was thorium but this technology would take another 15 years to fruition.

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