India to double uranium reserves in five years
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, May 22, IRNA
India-Uranium-Exploration Program
India is moving aggressively on its uranium exploration program to double its reserves within the next five years, Secretary of the Atomic Energy Commission Anil Kakodkar said Tuesday in Kolkata, capital of West Bengal state.
"We are moving very aggressively on uranium. We are looking at new reserves. We want the reserves to be augmented two-fold in the next five years," Kakodkar told reporters after receiving the 'Raja Ram Mohan Puraskar, 2007' from the Ram Mohan Mission in Kolkata, PTI reported here.
He said the exploration would be done with technology developed by the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre.
India's confirmed uranium reserve currently is now 78,000 tons and it requires 100,000 tons in the near future to sustain the growth of nuclear power projects.
There was a huge potential in N-power generation and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India, now being expanded, was capable of producing 1,000 MW on its own. "But that would require a lot of adjustment on acts and policies," he said.
Paper work for amendment to the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, was now on and the matter would be placed before Parliament as soon as possible for a decision, he said.
According to Kakodkar, the country's first Fast Breeder Reactor would be ready by 2011.
Strongly advocating reactor fuel recycling despite objections by the US, he said the process cuts down fuel wastes to a negligible level, besides enabling up to 80 times of energy generation out of the same fuel.
"I would expect the US to agree to it. The July 18, 2006, agreement says this could be negotiated," he said.
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