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India needs to hike its nuclear power production

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, Dec 4, IRNA
India-Prez-Mind to Market
Indian President, A P J Abdul Kalam Monday said India should pursue nuclear power generation using thorium, which is abundantly available in the country.

"India would need to hike its nuclear power production capacity to 50,000 MW by 2030," he said while inaugurating an international conference on 'India R&D 2006: Mind to Market' here organized by Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

"Nuclear power generation has been given a thrust by the use of uranium-based fuel. However to meet the increased needs of nuclear power generation, it is essential to pursue the development of nuclear power using thorium, reserves of which are higher in the country," Kalam said.

The president said technology development for thorium-based power plants was being accelerated.

On the present nuclear power capacity scenario, he noted that 14 reactors in the country were producing a total of 3,900 MW, which is expected to go up to 7,400 MW by 2010 with the completion of nine more reactors.

"Eventually, as per present plan of BARC (Bhabha Atomic Research Center) and Nuclear Power Corporation the capacity by 2020 is expected to be increased to 24,000 MW," he said.

Kalam said there was a need right from now to increase this capacity to 50,000 MW by 2030, considering the continuous depletion of fossil fuels across the globe, environment protection and availability at an affordable cost.

"Our target is to achieve energy security by 2020 leading to Energy Independence by 2030 and beyond," he said.

The president also emphasized the need for increasing conventional power generation capacity in order to match India's economic growth.

"Based on the progress visualized for the nation during the next two decades and economies and savings plan to be achieved, the power generating capacity has to increase to four lakh MW by 2030 from the existing 1.30 lakh MW in India," he said.

Energy independence has got to be achieved through three different sources namely hydel capacity, nuclear power and non-conventional energy sources primarily through solar and wind energy apart from thermal power through clean coal technology.

Calling for joint effort between countries to provide platform for innovation, Kalam stressed on the need for promoting a 'world knowledge platform' to integrate core competencies of partner countries.

The initial mission of the platform would be to connect and network the R&D institutions, universities and industries using fiber broadband from partner nations on selected R&D missions.

"This platform will enable joint design, development, cost effective production and marketing of the knowledge products in various domains based on the core competence of partner nations to international markets," he added.

Kalam also stressed on use of technology in the agricultural sector with a particular focus on precision farming, tissue culture and use of radio isotopes to increase farm yields.

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