We should thank Dr.A.N.Prasad for highlighting another aspect of the nuke deal.No doubt the price of imported uranium will soar like the price of crude oil,draining our foreign exchange reserves.And ofcourse,we will be providing free power to the farmers and the poor people if only to sustain votebanks.Who pays for all these?The poor taxpayer,no doubt. We might have achieved self suffiency in nuclear power generation long back,if only sanctions were not slapped on India.This happened because we exploded an atomic device.The pity is,the decision to detonate an atomic device was taken by the IG govt at the centre,not because we had firmly resolved to become a nuclear weapon state, but because of reasons of temporary political gains.We are practising nuclear abstinence now.What is the use? Neither we could become a nuclear weapon state in real terms, nor we could augment our power resources through nuclear power in a significant way.The politicians method of solving this is through compromise;but compromising our strategic interests for the sake of 6% increase in electric power is certainly not the best option.I am sure we can afford to wait till our throium based reactors are ready in about 15 years.Heavens will not fall if we wait.We can spend on R&D,uranium mining etc to speed up the 3 stage process envisaged by Dr.HomiBabha.Even if we import light water reactors through the nuke deal, it may take several years before power can be generated.It will be more cost effective
RE:Is the nuclear deal about big business?
by pjothilingam on Jul 16, 2008 12:03 PM Permalink
The last sentence should read"It will be more cost effective to encourage indigenous efforts"
