Humans often fail to differentiate between emotions and logic. Often what seems a logical reaction to something is deeply rooted in the emotional impact that event has caused on them. A cautious approach that the world, especially India has taken towards Nuclear energy is also one of those. The havoc caused due to human negligence is now stopping India from saving billions of Dollars.
India’s initial flirt with Nuclear power
India’s tryst with Nuclear energy is as old as the concept itself. In the first decade of the 20th century, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) recognised India’s potential deposits of significant minerals containing Uranium and Thorium. However, the technology was not mature enough so that scientists could come up with a solution to utilise it judiciously and for civilians’ gains. Additionally, Indian scientists did not push for extracting them, apparently because nationalism does not teach us to allow gains from valuable resources to accrue to coloniser’s coffers.
However, Indian physicists maintained close contact with research on going all around the world. Daulat Singh Kothari, Meghnad Saha, Homi J. Bhabha and R. S. Krishnan are some prominent Indian names dominating the European journey of nuclear Physics during the first half of the 20th century. Later, when nuclear fission and its potencies were discovered, a professor named Meghnath Saha put Nuclear Physics into the post-graduate curriculum of the University of Calcutta in 1940. Funds for installing a cyclotron at the same University were sanctioned by Tata trust. Five years later, a combined effort from Homi Jahangir Bhabha and J.R.D. Tata saw the establishment of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai. Behind the establishment of TIFR, Bhabha’s main aim was to increase India’s clout in Nuclear Physics.
Homi Jahangir Bhabha’s push towards nuclear
After the United States experimented with its two atom bombs in Japan, a race for gaining nuclear capacity kicked off. On the other hand, Indian scientists were trying to find ways to establish an institutional framework for civilian use of nuclear energy. In the aftermath of the second world war, eminent Indian scientists spent more than a decade ensuring that we have enough technical know-how, manpower and regulatory freedom to conduct our research.
Bhabha was the centre point of all these efforts. He was the head of the Atomic Research Committee (ARC) which was tasked with suggesting ways to develop and harness India’s capacity. In his capacity as head of the ARC, he led efforts to collaborate with similar organisations in other countries. Later, Jawaharlal Nehru effectively centralised most of the country’s initiatives towards nuclear energy under him.
Establishment of nuclear power plants
By 1955, authorities were preparing for nuclear power plants. But at that time, it was not possible to do it on our own. The Soviets invited Indian scientists to visit their first commercial power plant. Other countries like the United States, Canada and even the United Kingdom were willing to partner with India. After various rounds of deliberations, it was decided that our first nuclear power plant would be established in Tarapur, Maharashtra. Against the stipulated year of 1965, it was commissioned in 1969. Tarapur opened the floodgates, but unfortunately, not much substantive development could take place. 53 years after the commissioning of the Tarapur plant, India can only boast of 22 such plants, an extremely less number, given that we have a huge amount of Thorium reserves.
Interestingly, using Thorium for nuclear power is not a common practice. The world only recently started exploring Thorium’s potential as a nuclear fuel. Uranium is the one which countries prefer. Bhabha was the one who promoted the use of Thorium for India’s energy security. He had devised India’s three-stage nuclear power programme, considering India produces only 2 per cent of global Uranium. On the other hand, we have the world’s largest Thorium reserve. However, due to a lacklustre attitude by the governments, even to this date, we have not been able to fully utilise our Thorium reserves and have to rely on various countries for our Uranium requirements.
Nuclear arms against nuclear power
Underutilisation of our mineral reserve is not the only problem halting our nuclear energy prospects. In the 20th century, India’s initiatives to emerge as a capable power also provided roadblocks. India’s test of the “Smiling Buddha” nuclear weapon in 1974 drew huge international reactions. At that time, India was the only country other than 5 members of the UNSC to do so. Western countries rushed in to form the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), in order to ensure that any such event is not repeated. Its regulations in 1992 indirectly banned nuclear exports to India. 24 years later, India did Pokhran-II in 1998. The tests ended up tightening the sanctions regime on India. Though these sanctions were not directly aimed at restricting India’s capability in pulling materials required for itself, they did translate into partnering countries not preferring India for any kind of trade positively affecting India’s nuclear power capacity.
Narrative war against nuclear power
Moreover, the narrative war against nuclear power has also traditionally hampered our focus towards it. The first perceptional roadblock was created by the Bhopal Gas tragedy of 1984. It underlined the importance of proper management of industries using chemical reactions, which included nuclear power as well. But, somehow the clouds of uncertainty over the future of nuclear energy soon dissipated. However, the nuclear sector could not avoid scrutiny after the Chernobyl disaster. The residues of Chernobyl are believed to have been transported to Mumbai as well. Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) had to hold various rounds of discussions, and deliberations in order to ensure that the controversy does not affect India’s nuclear power generating ability.
Civil nuclear deals
Despite all these issues, India had been progressing well on its nuclear power journey. Just after Pokhran II, PM Vajpayee had told the world that it is developing nuclear capacity only for peaceful purposes. Despite browbeating by the Clinton administration, India did not kneel. Its benefits were later reaped by the Manmohan Singh government. In 2005, Bush and Manmohan signed India–United States Civil Nuclear Agreement, also known as the 123 agreement. The resultant acceptance of the deal from around the world translated into India getting a waiver from NSG in 2008. The waiver came as a relief for the Indian civil nuclear sector whose contribution to power generation had declined by 12.83 per cent between 2006-2008.
The development opened floodgates for India. In the upcoming years, India went on to chalk Uranium import deals with countries like Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Argentina, Namibia, Niger and Australia.
Protests are a roadblock
But, the sector is more complex and analytics also follow the same trend. In 2011, the unfortunate Fukushima nuclear disaster happened in Japan. Though natural disaster was the main reason behind it, still disruptive groups in India decided to use it as a tool to hamper the nation’s progress. Jaitpur in Maharashtra, Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu, Haripur in Bengal, and Virdi in Gujarat became the main centres of protests against India’s nuclear power ambitions. Even, PILs were filed as well, but the Apex Court refused to intervene on the liability issue. Apparently, India already has a law called The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 to fix liabilities for any damages.
The protests caused lots of hindrances to the development of nuclear power in India. It delayed various bilateral civil nuclear deals along with that with Japan. Currently, India is in a civil nuclear pact with the US, France, Russia, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, Japan, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan and Korea.
Nuclear are far better
Despite the largely clear air around it, our nuclear power potential is largely untapped. Currently, nuclear power provides only 3 per cent of our energy requirement. Part of the blame lies with excessive emphasis on renewable energy. The world is so focused on harnessing natural sources like water, solar and wind that the cleanliness of nuclear energy has been put on the back burner. But, the fact of the matter is that in many ways, nuclear energy is far better than those we term renewables. For one, renewables are an unstable form of energy and rely on specific climate and weather for producing electricity. Due to this very nature, they require fossil fuels for backup energy.
Moreover, harnessing renewables also take up much more space compared to nuclear ones. According to data from the United States government, wind farms take up 360 times more space than nuclear plants while solar plants take up 75 times more. Moreover, the damage to ecology caused has not been measured on a large scale. But, in the US alone, around 5,00,000 birds are killed every year in the process of providing “renewable energy” to humans.
India needs to learn from examples
On the other hand, countries utilising nuclear power with safety are not facing such issues. France is one of them. It has provided an incentive to the nuclear power sector and has benefitted immensely from it. More than 75 per cent of its power comes from nuclear energy. It has found a way to recycle nuclear fuel as well. It produces 19 per cent of its electricity from recycled fuel.
Currently, the energy sector sentiments are favouring the promotion of nuclear power in India. India is trying to find a way to cut short the cost required to produce electricity in gas and coal-run plants. Nuclear power costs 33 to 50 per cent of a coal plant and 20-25 per cent of a gas combined-cycle plant. Given that our country needs to take cost-effective measures, the positive facts about nuclear power far outweigh the negative sentiments around it. Focusing on nuclear can save us $100 billion on annual basis.
Currently, our nuclear power capacity is 7,380 MW. In recent times, the Modi government has tried to reinvigorate the sector. India has targeted to increase its nuclear power generation capacity to 22,480 MW by 2031. It will be interesting to see how the development pans out. But, one thing is certain. India can do much better and harnessing our Thorium reserves will make us Aatmanirbhar.
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