2. •
Post the Fukushima disaster, many of the G-8 countries decided
to shun nuclear power as a political move, however, as demand
for energy in the West has stabilized, many would of them aren’t
likely to replace the plants that would be decommissioned in the
next decade.
3. WHY DEVELOPMENT OF CIVILIAN NUCLEAR POWER IS A
NECESSITY FOR INDIA & CHINA.
By 2050, China’s GDP is expected to be around $70 trillion
compared to about $5 trillion now. Likewise India’s GDP by
around 2050 would be around $38 trillion compared to a mere $
1.8 trillion now. Thus China’s GDP could grow around 14 times
while the Indian economy would grow around 21 times.
• In the last few years China and India have accounted for more
than 70% of increased energy demand of the world. Incidentally
in the last 3 decades, China’s energy demand had already
quadrupled and could again jump by a quadruple by 2040. By
2035 China and India could consume more than a third of the
world’s energy.
4. •As global oil production is expected to peak before 2040, both China
and India are trying to vie for the same pie of unexplored energy bases
in Central Asia, Africa or as recently as Bay of Bengal and South
China Sea. Such rivalries could eventually give shape to energy related
conflicts in the future.
•A way out of this imminent quagmire is to either discover some
inexhaustible source of energy which can address the insatiable
appetite of energy ( of China and India) or make optimal use of similar
a major energy source available, i.e. nuclear energy.
5. • What are India’s alternate energy resources?
* While there are the options in renewable energy like Wind,
Solar or even Hydropower, they are not without limitations.
* There are no estimates of land required to set up solar panels to
light up a city like Delhi or Mumbai for 365 days a year? Then,
multiply that demand for thousands of India’s cities and towns
and six hundred thousand villages.
* Moreover, can India afford the same with its perennial monsoon
periods? Given the opposition in India to land acquisition, there
would be a limitation on land for solar panels or wind turbines.
6. What about alternate conventional resources?
• Today an estimated 65% of India’s power is made from coal. But the average coal
stocks reached below the critical level for most power plants and a few even faced a
shut down proved a point that even a country like India with such huge supply of coal
can face an energy crisis due to extraneous factors like monsoon or floods or regional
agitations .
•Indian coal deposits have an estimated 40% ash content which means that if a
country like India were take care of its future energy demands when its GDP shoots
up along with a population rise of another 300 million, it needs other options.
•The future of Indian civilian nuclear industry is particularly bright because it has the
potential to mitigate much of the energy demand of India without leading to any
conflict over resources with China. Likewise it is also the only source of literally
infinite amount of energy whose production would not damage the environment the
way fly ash from a coal based power plant does or emissions from the use of fossil
fuel does
7. INDIA’S CURRENT NUCLEAR ENERGY STATUS
India presently has 20 nuclear power reactors which are producing
4780 MW of electricity while construction of another 7 reactors with
capacity to produce 5300 MW of electricity are at various stages of
constructions or nearing completion.
This apart work on the
of the proposed 9900 MW
Jaitapur Power Plant
being set up by Areva
hasn’t yet started.
8. INDIA’s THREE STAGE NUCLEAR ENERGY PLAN
• In STAGE 1: India plans to scale up to around 320 GWe (32000 MW) per year
using Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors with natural Uranium ( by around 2020).
• In STAGE 2: India plans to use depleted Uranium from Stage 1 along with Plutonium
for Plutonium based fast breeder reactors to produce an estimated 42000 GWe per
year (42,000,000 MW or 42 million MW from 2030 onwards).
• In STAGE 3: India Plans to use the thorium (that
(would be the spent fuel from STAGE 2) for India’s
Thorium based reactors which has the potential to
generate up to 15,5000 GWe (155 million MW) of
electricity per year and is a self sustaining program.
The entire nuclear deal for India was based on the
assumption of the infinite potential of power
generation that STAGE 3 promises ( by around 2050)
9. Nuclear Reactors require huge insurance back-ups for various associated liabilities.
Additionally, In America even now nuclear energy production is subsidized and therefore
nuclear power entities are still not viable on their own.
•Disposal of spent fuel is often expensive and if not done to the specifications of international
safety norms can have huge environmental ramifications.
• Nuclear facilities remain perennial potential targets for terror attack thereby requiring
considerable amount of money to be spent on their asset protection. In other words, nuclear
facilities are more vulnerable than other kinds of energy assets.
•Even India’s Three Stage Nuclear
Program is yet to be tested in terms
of its real time practical feasibility
and thus complete dependence on
it might prove to be counter productive.
10. NUCLEAR ENERGY WILL BE EXPENSIVE
Currently nuclear power in India is far costlier than power from
fossil fuel and other alternate series like wind and solar.
But N-energy could offer vast benefits to consumers in India.
