India, China to continue fuel nuclear energy power: IAEA

Notwithstanding the slowdown in the global nuclear sector following the Fukushima disaster, India and China continue to increase their nuclear capacity and are on the road to 60,000-Mw capacity each by 2030.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in its latest report, said the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident would slow growth in the nuclear power sector, but not reverse it. The world's installed nuclear power capacity would grow to 501 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, from the current 367 Gw, down eight per cent from the last year’s projection, the report said in its updated low projection. In the updated high projection, it would grow to 746 GW by 2030, down seven per cent from last year.

According to the IAEA report, among countries considering the introduction of nuclear power, the interest remains strong. India, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Pakistan are currently carrying out commercial nuclear power programmes.

In India, 17 reactors are planned and nearly 40 are proposed, while in China, 28 reactors are under construction, while sites for additional 12 reactors are under finalisation. Incidentally, the IAEA report did not mention the recent incidents of opposition to nuclear projects in India. The Prime Minister and the Nuclear Power Corporation had assured the pursuit of nuclear capacity addition by allying fears among the people residing in the vicinity of the project sites.

IAEA spokesman Greg Webb told Business Standard, “IAEA director general, Yukiya Amano, recently said the agency had updated its projections. We expect the number of operating nuclear reactors in the world to increase by about 90 by 2030, in our low projection, or by around 350, in our high projection, from the current 432 reactors.”