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Journalism of Courage
Even if the Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation deal does not materialise, India needs to sustain the tempo of domestic nuclear energy research and development without hindrance in the form of external safeguards, Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission Dr Anil Kakodkar said here on Monday.
Inaugurating a training programme on ‘Energy Security and Management’ for middle-level officers in Government, Kakodkar said “only time can tell” weather the Indo-US nuclear deal will go through.
However, he asserted that a civil nuclear cooperation is essential to bridge any energy shortfall in the country.
“Negotiations have started with the IAEA on safeguards. There are complex issues. You have to deal with them one by one. But it’s moving forward. We have to get this done as early as possible, but it has to be correctly done. It’s a long technical process,” he said. “We need to have a massive effort to make use of our energy resources, especially thorium,” the AEC chairman said. Nuclear power must contribute about a quarter of the total electric power of 1300 GWe required per year for 50 years from now, he said.
The design for a 300 MW thorium-based Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) is ready and construction will begin within a year, he said. The AHWR will be a platform to demonstrate large-scale thorium usage, Kakodkar said.
