PM bats for n-power with high safety standards

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday said India had ensured the highest safety standards for nuclear plants and was capable of generating 27,000 megawatts of power from them.

Addressing a gathering after laying the foundation stone of the Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership and the National Cancer Institute in Jhajjar district, 100 km from New Delhi, the prime minister said nuclear energy was a reliable and clean way of power generation.

"India is among those countries in the world which have developed technology to set up nuclear plants and produce nuclear fuel. Our aim is that we should be able to have the capability to generate 27,000 megawatts of nuclear power in the next 10 years," he said.

Manmohan Singh said it was of utmost importance that India should ensure that the raw material for nuclear fuel should never get into the hands of criminals and terrorists.

He said that after the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in Japan in 2011, India made plans in design and management of nuclear plants to ensure safety standards.

"Today, we can say with full confidence that our safety standards can be compared to the best in the world," the prime minister said.