'Nuclear power vital for India's future energy needs'

The growing energy needs of a developing country like India could only be met by ramping up nuclear power capacity, former Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chairperson and Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) secretary Anil Kakodkar has said.

“India’s total power demand-supply gap will widen to 412 Gigawatt (412,000 Megawatt) by 2050,” Kakodkar said delivering a lecture on ‘Perspectives in Nuclear Energy’ as part of the Lucknow University (LU) Convocation Week here.

To bridge this chasm, the country would need to import 1.6 billion tonnes of coal annually by 2050 to generate enough power to meet the energy demands.

“The only practical solution to meet the heightened energy demand would be to increase nuclear power generation in future,” he said adding India had already proved its credentials as a leading nuclear technology state.

He said nuclear energy was safe, secure, sustainable and had no residual issue.

“Already 16-17 per cent of the energy needs in developed economies are being met with nuclear power,” Kakodkar, who had played a strategic role in clinching the 2008 Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, added.

There are 16 operating nuclear reactors in the country, while a couple of more would join the league.

“However, we have to move in a calibrated and cautious manner before the domestic private sector is drawn into partnering the nuclear power generation space,” the eminent scientist later told Business Standard on the sidelines.

He noted the private sector had to come in after a stage, since the public sector Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) was cash rich and had enough resources to generate 10,000 Mw power.

“The nuclear power sector has a different business dynamics as these projects cannot be left midway, a dimension which the private sector has to learn before foraying,” he observed.

Kakodkar, who is a former Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) director, informed the current nuclear power capacity stood at 4,000 Mw, while projects totalling 7,000 Mw were underway. “Besides, other 10,000 Mw projects have also been proposed.”

He was in the team of scientists, which had successfully carried out Pokhran-I (1974) and Pokhran-II (1998) nuclear tests.