MYSURU: Confirming plans for establishment of a nuclear enrichment plant near Challakere, Dr Srikumar Banerjee, former chief of Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), said the project had turned controversial only after an American journal published a report “with plenty of false information in it.”
“If you feed them (local population) with this kind of information (harmful effects of radiation because of plans to make a Hydrogen bomb), they will certainly protest. We have an enrichment plant near Mysuru, but where is the Hydrogen cloud?” he asked after addressing scientists at the Indian Science Congress on Tuesday. He said more nuclear power could be generated if foreign suppliers make technology and products affordable for setting up reactors.
“The stumbling block is economics, as installing a nuclear plant has to be affordable to sell its power at a competitive rate,” he added. Notwithstanding the hype over the Indo-US deal and opening up of the civilian nuclear industry to foreign suppliers, barring two recent agreements on setting up two more units at the Russian-backed Kudankulam plant in Tamil Nadu and the French-backed Jaitapur project in Maharahstra, not much headway has been made over the years.
DRDO pavillion at the Indian Science Congress at the University of Mysuru
“If suppliers agree to shift production to India through joint ventures with private firms, its cost can be reduced to make and sell nuclear power viable,” Dr Banerjee added. Maintaining that nuclear power plants could be set up by resolving contentious issues, he said it was important to assess commercial viability of reactors to be set up with help of international suppliers of technology and products.
“If nuclear suppliers could shift equipment-making activity to our country, then production cost will reduce substantially,” he said. Dr Banerjee added: “The government has set a target of 60 giga watt (60,000 mega watt) from nuclear plants by 2032 as against the present 5,780 MW by various types of reactors though it (target) will meet about 10 percent of the energy need, which will be about 600 giga watt as against the present 250 giga watt.”
