'Nuclear power to drive Indian industry'

As fossil fuel reserves are fast depleting, nuclear power is becoming the inevitable option for the industrial sector to support the growing Indian economy, Principal Scientific Advisor R Chidambaram said in Mumbai.

"Nuclear power will become the inevitable option in the long run for the country's industry to function at optimum levels and contribute immensely towards economic prosperity," Chidambaram told PTI.

"Even with full utilisation of all existing commercially exploitable domestic hydrocarbon, hydroelectric and non-conventional resources, this level of increased generation capacity cannot be sustained for more than a few decades," he said.

Hence it was important for the country to make full use of nuclear power, which was sustainable and clean, he said adding that India was fortunate to have a strong foundation of nuclear power.

"The ongoing nuclear power deals with foreign countries will go a long way for industrial growth. Nuclear power is a very serious business," the noted scientist said.

In India, the total nuclear installed capacity is 3,360 MWe (including 50 MWe of restoration of Madras atomic power station recently to its original rating 220 MWe) compared to 3,46,000 MWe in the world.

The immediate objective of the Department of Atomic Energy is to achieve 20,000 MWe of nuclear generation capacity by the year 2020.

US needs India for knowledge management

The US requires Indian expertise for better knowledge management in the field of nuclear energy since the R&D in this sector had slowed down in the US for the last three decades while Indian nuclear energy programme was growing Chidambaram said.

"Any sector which is booming likes to pursue R&D. Automobile is one such sector in India. In contrast, any sector which is stagnant, doesn't like to do R&D," he said.

"I said this to my American counterparts that for the last 20 years they have not built a nuclear reactor. Hence knowledge management becomes difficult when a sector becomes stagnant," he said. According to him, India's knowledge management in spheres such as the nuclear energy sector was for growth. "This is why it is a good opportunity for India and US to collaborate in knowledge management of nuclear power. They need us as much as we need them."

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