Share nuclear expertise, Chidambaram tells IAEA

Share nuclear expertise, Chidambaram tells IAEA
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

MUMBAI, SEPT 21: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Wednesday called upon the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to promote technological capabilities of member-states. He said this in a message to the 44th General Conference of the IAEA being held at Vienna read out by Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy and Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission of India and head of the Indian delegation.

Chidambaram followed it up with a forceful plea that the IAEA, apart from ensuring nuclear safety, should take the initiative to share nuclear technologies.

``Safety and safeguards are indeed important,'' Chidambaram said, and added, ``However, they cannot become activities of the IAEA overshadowing the peaceful uses of atomic energy. Primacy must be accorded to technology. This is the only way we can faithfully interpret the time-tested Statute of the Agency.''

In a carefully-worded speech, Chidambaram argued that the in-house expertise available with IAEA and its access to nuclear expertise globally should be shared with member-states.

Chidambaram said that the IAEA programme should include ``the role of innovative nuclear reactors and fuel cycles for sustainable development''.

Chidambaram noted that India, along with Group-77 and China, has been requesting a `Nuclear Technology Review' on the lines of the nuclear safety review.

At home, the nuclear protagonists argued that advanced nuclear technology countries had suspended production of nuclear power because it had reached a saturation point. Highlighting that aspect, Chidambaram said, ``Even in countries which are currently seeing a slowdown in their nuclear power development programme it is likely that a reversal would occur due to two factors - firstly, due to a substantial increase in oil prices as is happening now and, secondly, due to their commitment to the Kyoto Protocol. For a large country like India, with its need to increase its per capita electricity consumption substantially, rapid growth in nuclear electricity generation capacity is of vital importance.''

Apprising the conference on India's achievements, Cidambaram said that the Indian nuclear reactors were operating safely and said that the indigenously designed 500-MW power projects at Tarapur were progressing in ``full swing''.

``Necessitated by our limited uranium resources and in order to ensure long term energy security, India has opted for a closed nuclear fuel cycle policy, involving a fast breeder reactor programme and thorium utilisation and associated fuel reprocessing and refabrication plants. The capabilities for providing the technology resources for our programme have been mainly derived from our strong R & D progrmame.

In the 15-year old Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FRTR) at Kalpakkam, the performance of the unique and indigenously developed mixed Uranium-Plutonium Carbide fuel has been extremely good and so far it has reached a maximum burn-up of 53,830 MWd/t without any fuel failure. Preparations for the commencement of construction of a 500 Mwe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) are underway. The U-233 fuelled Kamini research reactor is also being operated successfully. A closed fuel cycle is also important for the safe management of the environment as it brings down the quantity of high level wastes to very low levels,'' Chidambaram said.

Chidambaram also unveiled plans for the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) the designs for which were being developed at the BARC.

``The reactor will have several advanced safety features, such as passive safety systems not requiring either external power or operator action for activation. Experimental programmes to validate the computer codes used for the design of the natural circulation based coolant system of the AHWR are now well under way. India's efforts in developing the AHWR, which will facilitate thorium utilization, is an effort towards developing innovative reactor and fuel cycle designs for sustainable development of nuclear energy,'' Chidambaram said.