There is a limit to the amount of power which can be generated with conventional hydro or cola means. Hydro power though cheap, in most of the cicumstances comes at a heavy cost to the environment and our fast disappearing Forests. Even with tapping all available hydro power still our nation will be left with a large gap in the energy security front. Coming to coal, our nation is not self sufficient in coal, if so why our power companies like Tata Power and Reliance Power buying coal fields in Indonesia? Moreover coal is a major ingredient in making steel, which India needs in large amounts for so many coming years. Again coal fired plants are main culprits in increasing global warming effect which is threatening our climate and affecting even our food security by unpredictable weather changes. (The draught in Australia and the resultant reduction in wheat output, the resultant run away hikes in global wheat prices are one example though it may not be the only reason for hikes in price of wheat). We should not forget the fact that no power source is more costly than no power condition. Just look around and see how many companies, shops and commercial establishments are running in diesel generators, how many pump sets are working in diesel due non availability of electric power. Fact is we need nuclear power. For that we need to import uranium. For that we need to sign international safe guards and agreements which guarantee that the imported uranium will not be used for weapo
RE:Need for nuclear power
by Ramachandran on Jun 24, 2008 01:01 PM Permalink
But there is a catch! For running our present nuke plants , we are sacrificing our wings being cut throgh this DEAL!!.Our future Energy security lies in Thorium based Fast reactor technology, as outlined and being implemented by Bhabha and follwers. We have big reserves of Monasite sand , sufficent for Future India. This deal deal categorises Fast reactor technology being developed in our country as Military installation. They can inspect our Fast Reactors on suspision and put a hold on developmentof these reactors, as USA has NO fast reactor programme. If they are giving something we should be very careful before accepting. for example they Gave CRAY computer when we ourselves gained knowledge to build one like that.