As his party continued to oppose the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, West Bengal chief minister and Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Monday said the country cannot avoid nuclear power and wanted scientists to debate this and come to a conclusion.

"We just cannot avoid nuclear power. We should move ahead taking into account the price of nuclear plant and cost of power," Bhattacharjee told an interactive session with the captains of industry organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries.

However, Bhattacharya was silent on the nuclear deal.

On Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's [Images] recent statement that India could not miss the bus of nuclear renaissance, Bhattacharjee said, "We have some doubts about the price of nuclear plants, the cost of power etc. Scientists, planners and economists should discuss this. Let scientists debate, we will take a decision after that."

Bhattacharjee had on Sunday stated that the state government had not taken a decision on nuclear power yet because of divided opinion on it.

The state, he said, required more power in coming years because 'our growth rate is increasing and Foreign Direct Investment is coming.'

Stating that 96 per cent of power in the state was generated by thermal power, he said: "We have to switch over from thermal to solar, wind and other sources of power. In view of the problem of global warming, we need clean power."