Inevitability of Atomic Energy in India's Power Programme

摘要

The case for atomic energy as the inevitable answer to the energy problem of India has been emphatically put up and supported with data. Hydroelectric power is costly to develop and moreover its potential is not enough to meet India's growing energy requirements. On the grounds of economics and safety, nuclear power has been shown to be superior to power from coal-based power plants. India's proved reserves of coal are 21 billion tonnes out of which 80% has ash content more than 20% and in order to reach only half of the present per capita energy consumption in Europe, the present output of 90 million tonnes/year of coal will have to be increased by a factor of 10, which in addition raises the problem of its transportation to the plant sites. Secondly, total energy from the available coal is estimated at 160 x 10 exp 12 kwh, while that from known reserves of 52,000 tonnes of uranium is 7.2 x 10 exp 12 kwh if used in thermal reactors and 208 x 10 exp 12 kwh if used in fast reactors. Thorium with its known reserves of 320,000 tonnes would give another 1280 x 10 exp 12 kwh. As for safety and ecology, it has been pointed out that : (1) in U.S., the number of coal miners dying of black cancer is 1000 per 10 exp 12 kwh of electricity generated, whereas the fatality rate of uranium miners due to lung cancer is 20 per 10 exp 12 kwh of electricity generated and (2) safety has been the primary concern in all aspects of nuclear technology - mining, fuel production, reactor operation and radioactive waste processing. A terrorist getting possession of plutonium for spreading it into atmosphere or making a nuclear bomb is highly improbable, because at any point throughout the fuel cycle plutonium is under strict security surveillance and it is impossible to make a nuclear device without the back-up of powerful laboratory facilities. Finally, India's three stage atomic power programme is described in brief. (Atomindex citation 09:376805)