The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Nuclear power alone can fulfil energy requirement: Vasan

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Monday, Aug 11, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Nuclear power alone can fulfil energy requirement: Vasan

Special Correspondent

— Photo: R. Ragu

DISCUSSING A POINT: (From left) Union Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation G.K.Vasan, former Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission M.R. Srinivasan, former Chief Vigilance Commissioner N. Vittal, and former Director, Nuclear Recycle Group, BARC, K. Balu, at a seminar in Chennai on Sunday.

CHENNAI: Union Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation G.K.Vasan on Sunday expressed the hope that the opponents of the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal would realise its importance and support it.

Addressing a seminar organised by National Awareness Forum, Mr. Vasan recalled the objections raised by a section of politicians to the computerisation programme introduced by Rajiv Gandhi.

“Now they have realised the importance of computers. They have become part and parcel of our life. No one will oppose computers now. Similarly, those who oppose the nuclear deal will support it,” he said.

Describing as “unfortunate” the objections of the Left parties and the BJP to the nuclear deal, Mr. Vasan said nuclear power alone could fulfil the energy requirement of the country, since we had already exhausted other sources of power generation. “If we want to achieve 9 per cent growth we need electricity. Without power we cannot make progress in industrial sector and agriculture,” he said.

Former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission M.R. Srinivasan rejected the “old argument” that generation of nuclear power was expensive. Explaining why nuclear power generation was cheaper, Dr. Srinivasan said the first and second units in Tarapur had produced power at a cost of 93 paise per unit. He pointed out that the investment was amortised in 25 years.

“The plant has now completed 39 years of operation and the power station may continue to operate for another 15 years. The fuelling cost component is only about 25 paise per unit,” he said.

According to Dr. Srinivasan those who want to know why thorium was not used in reactors straightaway were missing an important point that a large amount of plutonium was required for use of thorium as fuel. And plutonium could be recovered only by reprocessing spent uranium.

K. Balu, former director Nuclear Recycle Group, BARC, said to go to thorium fuel reactors, the country needed a lot of natural uranium as fuel for reactors in the first stage and it was not available in plenty in the country.

Former Chief Vigilance Commissioner N. Vittal, Congress MP. B.S. Gnanadesikan and senior journalist N. Ramadurai spoke.

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