The news that has been
invariably catching the headlines of the dailies last month is, should the
Kudankulam Nuclear power plant be given the green signal or the red signal.
While some may say, that
this issue is just owing to the vested interest of political parties and
industry leaders, I think it is still a cause of concern for the general
public, who have woken up to the recent natural disaster impacting the Daiichi
plant in Fukushima, Japan. Former President Dr.A.P.J.Abdulkalam, has given a
full length article in the Hindu newspaper, in which he clearly explains the
safety of nuclear based power generation and the advantages of using nuclear as
compared to burning other fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. While this
has thrown some light to the educated class, this has to be told to the layman
in a way that he best understands and his apprehensions are counseled. This can
be done, by initiating some progressive, social and infrastructure development measures,
in and around the area, as a proactive concern of the safety and security of
the people living there. This I think will help to gain their confidence and
look at it as a win win situation, rather than a situation where the country is
developing at the stake of their life.
Hardly 3 years back, we
all in this state, believed that power
shortage is a thing of the past. But we started to face the challenge of
peridodical power cuts which has now increased to alarming proportions. The increasing
pace of industrialization, FDI investments in the manufacturing sector and with
increasing domestic needs, the power requirement seems to be large. There is a
clear indication that there cannot be economic progress, without ample power.
“it is predicted that the total electricity demand will grow from the current
150,000 MW to at least over 950,000 MW by the year 2030”. *That is about 6
times our current requirement.
So how are we going to
meet out this large requirement? What is our way forward plan? Let us consider
the alternatives:
The most popular power
solution that is now available in our country, is coal powered thermal plants.
Thermal plants as we all know are highly polluting. Also, a survey states that
the entire coal reserves of the world will deplete in 40 to 50 years, at the
current rate of consumption. So what do we do after that?
Can solar and wind energy
be an answer? “The greenest sources of power are definitely solar and wind.
With abundant sunshine and places of high wind velocity, the nation definitely
has potential for these forms of energy. But solar and wind power, despite all
their advantages, are not stable and are dependent excessively on weather and
sunshine conditions.”* So this too has its limitations in terms of very high
capital cost and all around the year availability.
Nuclear power seems to be
the answer. Nuclear energy is cheap and clean. Moreover the indication that
Thorium can be used as a nuclear fuel, seems to give more reason to believe
that India should go for nuclear energy, because it is believed that India
might have the largest reserves of Thorium in the world, i.e over 6.50 lakh
tonnes. “India has the potential to be the first nation to realize the dream of
a fossil fuel-free nation, which will also relieve the nation of about $100 billion
annually which we spend in importing petroleum and cool, a large fraction of
which was for the thermal plants. Nuclear power, provides a relatively clean,
highdensity source of reliable energy. Today, there are 29 countries operating
441 nuclear power plants, with a total capacity of about 375 GW”.*
It is wise, not to depend
on a single source of energy, but harness energy from multiple sources, to
service our huge requirement. Let us be open to the idea of nuclear energy, to
aid our country’s growth.
Happy Reading,
Article Dated Dec 2011
