Welcome power addition

The signing of the accord with the Russians on Units 3 and 4 of the Kudankulam nuclear power complex should in course of time bring a welcome addition to power generating capacity in the region. The firing up of just the first of the plants was marked by inordinate delays further exacerbated by the civil opposition to nuclear power in an area in which the fishermen community is dominant and they have nursed some fears over their livelihood being affected by the water being sourced from the sea. Also, the civil liability terms in case of a nuclear accident had held up negotiations over the third and fourth reactors.

International opposition building up to nuclear power may be fashionable but any scientist would say how, in the long run, such power is not only cheap but also one of the cleanest forms of energy generation although it does leave the knotty problem of disposal of the radioactive spent fuel rods. India currently generates only three per cent of its power from nuclear sources, but that could change in the not too distant future.

The clean power generation scenario could change dramatically if ever India cracks the thorium riddle and uses it as a source of power. A small, experimental start has been made in Kalpakkam, near Chennai, with thorium as fuel, but a breakthrough in terms of commercial generation could be decades away despite India being rich in thorium resources. China has taken a head start with a dedicated team of 400-plus scientists already working on the project. Thorium would be the future.