Indian government has announced its long-term nuclear commitment to generate 40,000 MWe nuclear power by 2030. It had entered into Nuclear deals with seven countries, including the United States costing the nation more than US$ 150 billion. It takes 10-15 years to build a nuclear power plant but the designed life of a reactor is just about fifty (50) years. There after the entire structure, plant area, equipment and the radioactive waste pose serious engineering and financial problems for their safe-keeping for hundred years. Scientific studies of the post-Chernobyl accident (1986) warned us against Nuclear Power. In Europe tens of thousands of animals were destroyed, helicopters, vehicles, buildings, machines, tools, roads, soil, trees, and forests were contaminated and abandoned. “The accident at Chernobyl reaffirmed what an abyss will open if nuclear war befalls mankind. For inherent in the nuclear arsenals stockpiled are thousands upon thousands of potential disasters far more horrible than the Chernobyl one,’ concluded Dr. Mould in the Chernobyl: The Real Story. The US National Academy of Science’s Committee for Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation and the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effect of Atomic Radiation had cautioned against long-term epidemiological radiation effects. The Kyoto Protocol had excluded nuclear power from the Clean Development Mechanism.
“The Nuclear Power is on downward trend world wide” and “the largest nuclear builders in the world AREVA NP has turned into financial fiasco”.
(The World Nuclear Industry Status Report, August, 2009).
Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Dr. Dale Klein says that there was no scope for revival of Nuclear sector in the US.
The German Nuclear Safety Act 2002 plans “To phase out the use of Nuclear Power.”
‘The arguments against the nuclear power deserve an objective assessment.’ says Mr. Hans-Holger Rogner, Head, Planning and Economic Studies Section of International Atomic Energy Agency.
And the Editor-in-Chief and Head of the IAEA Information, Mr. Lothar Wedekin says “Challenges are formidable, the future of Nuclear Power is uncertain but one thing looks clear – the next generation of (nuclear) plants will not be Made in the USA.”. (The IAEA Bulletin, vol.49/1, 2008).
Non-Nuclear sustainable Water, Wind and Solar (WWS) Energy is available to us. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, world wide demand in 2030 would be 16.9 TW (terawatts or TW). Solar energy offers 6,500 TW. (“A Plan for a Sustainable Future, WWS by 2030,” in the Scientific American: India, November 2009, pp. 38-45, www.sciam.co.in)
No Parliamentary Committee had discussed the reliability and performance of “Peaceful Nuclear” programme. Yet, the government had entered into Nuclear deals with seven countries, including the United States of America, costing the nation more than US$ 150 billion. We, the young Engineers and scientists asked the Prime Minister:
To re- assess the social cost of the long-term Nuclear Power programme.
We the citizens of India asked the Government, before make such long-term commitment, it should hold inter-departmental discussions with concerned Science and Public Policy ministries – Finance, Energy, Environment, Science and Technology and the Planning Commission.
Since the safer and economical Sources of Energy: (WWS) are available to us, there is no need to commit the future generations to potentially Hazardous Nuclear policy.
@ http://webnewswire.com/node/485700
