Atomic energy official says he'd like move ahead on nuke power

Atomic Energy Commission chairman and secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, K N Vyas on Monday said the department would like to move ahead on nuclear power by convincing various stakeholders.

"As you know, this is a high capital-intensive project, any nuclear power station, anywhere in the world. So, we have to go slowly, we have to take people into confidence. How I look at it is that we would like to request a set of people to get convinced. I do understand there is some resistance. But, we will try to work our best, he said.

"You may say that my opinion could be biased. I have worked for more than 30 or 40 years in the departmentof atomic energy. You may have fear of radioactivity. I do not have any fear of radioactivity, he told reporters here.

He was asked about his perspective on atomic energy sector, how things are, the developments in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and the resistance in some quarters.

Vyas was speaking on the sidelines of a conference on mineral processing technology, organised by the Indian Institute of Mineral Engineers (Hyderabad chapter).

The Telangana Legislative Assembly had passed a unanimous resolution urging the Centre not to allow uranium mining operations in the Nallamala forest region of the state.

The state had witnessed opposition to uranium exploration from politicalparties and various peoples organisations.

The AMD (Atomic Minerals Directorate) was earlier given in-principle approval by the Forest Advisory Committee under the Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change to conduct the survey for the radioactive mineral in Amrabad, one of the largest tiger reserves in the country.