Scientist sees no major expansion
Taking the wind out of the Department of Atomic Energy’s (DAE) assertions in the field of nuclear energy, M.V. Ramana, a nuclear physicist working in Princeton University, claimed there was little likelihood of any major expansion taking place in this area given the fact that India’s nuclear programme had run into several obstacles, including cost over runs (at over 200 per cent) and complete lack of accountability.
Mr Ramana, whose latest book Power of Promise: Examining Nuclear Energy in India focuses on the history of failures by the DAE as also its inability to meet targets which have remained very ambitious. “Each of the reactors they have set up has witnessed multiple failures or has been delayed by several years with major cost over runs,” he said.
“Koodankulam alone has seen a cost over run from `13,000 crores in 2007-8 to `17,000 crore (at the present time),” he said.
“In Rajasthan, (Rawatbhatta Atomic Power Station) the problem has been of getting water from far away while the Narora nuclear plant has been built on an seismic zone. The Jaitapur reactors are expected to cost to the tune of `60,000 crores (per reactor) which will bring up the cost of electricity to `14 per unit. The Maharashtra government subsidy on providing this electricity will work out to `7,000 crores per annum cannot prove financially viable for the state,” he said. Mr Ramana revealed that our total installed capacity is 4.78 GW, including pressurised heavy water reactors and boiling water reactors.
“We have one pilot scale 12 MW Fast Breeder Reactor, the construction of which began in 1985, but is yet to be completed. We are amid construction of 5.3 GW reactors with the government planning to import 40 GW LWRS between 2012-20,” Mr Ramana pointed out.
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