S K Jain: True N-believer

Amidst the political brouhaha surrounding the Nuclear Liability Bill last week, one person worked quietly behind the scenes to reassure potential overseas suppliers and ensure the fallout did not impact nuclear commerce. The payback: French major Areva, which is to supply two pressurised reactors of 1,650 Mw for a proposed 10,000-Mw project in Maharashtra, shrugged off concerns about a contentious liability clause in the Bill, saying it would respect all international and national laws.

Nuclear Power Corporation (NPCIL) chairman and managing director SK Jain has been a keen advocate of nuclear power as a cheap and efficient source of energy since 2004. But given India’s status as a nuclear pariah at the time, his views found few takers. But after the country’s isolation ended following the Indo-US nuclear agreement two years ago, Jain has been in the spotlight, with NPCIL seen as the prime conduit to achieve what he believes can be nuclear capacity of 63,000 Mw by 2032 from the present 4,160 Mw.

A distinguished scientist from the 13th batch of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Training School, the 62-year-old Jain believes the country’s nuclear power plants have progressively attained excellent operational performance, despite the constraints. “Some of our plants have been among the best-performing units in the world in terms of capacity utilisation,” he says. Now that necessary legislation is in place, Jain’s passion — and, what colleagues describe as his embracing nature — may just help fuel global excitement for this emerging sector.