Indian Government/Nuclear power

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@ICX.NET>]

Indian Government/Nuclear power plays an important role in meeting

energy needs of the world - Dr. Kakodkar

This story appeared on http://www.individual.com September 21, 2001



The Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, Dr. Anil Kakodkar said that we 

should recognize the reality that nuclear power will continue to play 

an important role in meeting the energy needs of the world and that

there is an imperative need to eliminate through innovation and

improvement the remaining concerns about nuclear power generation. 

Addressing the 45th General Conference of International Atomic Energy

Agency in Vienna yesterday, Dr. Kakodkar said that synergy between

various international organizations in the field of nuclear energy is

clearly desirable. It is, however, important to recognize that

technological empowerment and access to benefits of research take place

through actual participation. This is a more effective way in comparison

to delivery of a black box product. We would like to see growing

opportunities for such participation for interested Member States of the

IAEA.





Dr. Kakodkar said that as far as India is concerned, modest uranium 

resources have been a key determinant in the shape that our nuclear

power programme has taken. A closed-nuclear fuel cycle, which involves 

reprocessing and recycles of fissile materials, is central to our

nuclear policy.



Incidentally, this also facilitates a logical answer to management of 

long-term waste issue. Since our thorium reserves are five to six times 

larger than our uranium reserves, thorium utilization for large-scale 

energy production is an important long-term goal of our nuclear power 

programme.  In the year 2000, four 220 MWe PHWR Units commenced 

commercial operation, thus adding 880 MWe to the total capacity. Our 

power reactors are also maintaining high capacity factors of around 82%.

At present our nuclear power capacity is 2720 MWe with 14 units under

operation. In the next ten years it is envisaged that a total nuclear

power capacity of about 10,000 MWe would be realized. As part of the

policy of assuring a sound environmental management system, four  of the

stations i.e. at Tarapur, Narora, Kakrapar and Kalpakkam have obtained

the

Environmental Management System (EMS) certification as per ISO 14001.



Dr. Kakodkar emphasised that self-reliance continues to be the guiding 

principle of our nuclear programme, which is now firmly in place and

would continue to grow on the basis of domestic strengths.





He said that India considers the Regional Cooperative Agreement for Asia

and the Pacific (RCA) as an important mechanism for the growth and use

of nuclear technologies for the sustainable development in the region.

Following the Agency`s efforts in transferring more and more management

responsibilities and ownership to the Member States, we have been

continuously increasing our participation in the RCA Programmes.  India

has the requisite expertise in various RCA related activities and 

well-developed infrastructure facilities, which have been made available

as Regional Resource Units.



The IAEA was created with the sole objective of accelerating and

enlarging the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and 

prosperity throughout the world. This objective can be fulfilled only

through advancement of technology.





Dr. Kakodkar said that India believes from its own experience that

development in the field of peaceful uses of atomic energy acts as a

catalyst and provides the impetus for accelerated national development. 

The main motto of technical cooperation and technology transfer of this 

unique organization should be technological empowerment to meet human 

needs. We can achieve it by cooperating through International Atomic 

Energy Agency (IAEA).

-- 

.....................................................

Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director

Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee

                       -----                       

A schedule of meetings on DOE issues is posted on our Web site

http://www.local-oversight.org/meetings.html - E-mail loc@icx.net

.....................................................

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