The former foreign secretary and the Prime Minister’s special envoy on climate change, Mr Shyam Saran, said that India need not have to revise its nuclear plans in the aftermath of the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.
“If there is no nuclear power, you will have to accept that India will remain an energy-poor state for a long time to come,” Mr Saran said. He was participating in the Suzlon Debate organized as the concluding event of the Hay Festival on Saturday.
Mr Saran also said that the Koodankulam Nuclear plant was built adhering to the best possible standards. “You should not let emotions rule you. Let the facts speak for themselves,” he said. But Britain’s top renewable energy tycoon, Mr Jeremy Legget, feels that facts are against nuclear energy. “A big nuclear plant takes 10 years to go from flash to bang,” Mr Legget said.
“We, especially at a time when we are starved of energy, don’t have the time to go through such a long time before commissioning,” he added.
Mr Shyam Saran contradicted Mr Legget. “The best advice that we had received said that it takes just five years to install a nuclear plant from start to finish,” he said. Even before Mr Saran could complete his sentence there was a sudden chorus from the audience saying it was ten.
One person said ten years was the record for a nuclear plant. The chorus was so loud that the moderator, the BBC journalist Mr Nik Gowing, said: “Now I have got the right answer.”