INDIA NEEDS TO GO NUCLEAR

INDIA NEEDS TO GO NUCLEAR

India’s growing energy needs:

1. India has been registering rapid economic growth and is expected to surpass Germany and Japan to become the third largest economy by the end of this decade.
2. The economic growth triggers demand for energy, which is reflected in India’s primary energy consumption being the third-highest globally, and most of which is based on fossil energy.
3. India’s developmental aspirations require a manifold increase in per-capita energy use even while transitioning to net-zero GHG emission. 
4. Fossil fuels turn out to be a major contributor to global warming, becoming an existential crisis for humanity. 
5. Transition to net zero is now a global consensus-based goal to be achieved before a 2045–2070 time frame and requires
   1. Massive transformation of energy systems, involving new technologies,
   2. Restructuring of energy systems at supply-and-demand ends
   3. Large costs. 

Addressing the dual challenge: development vs net-zero targets

1. If India wants to reach a Human Development Index (HDI) comparable to advanced countries of the world, it shall require more than four times our present energy consumption (for instance, a minimum of 2,400-kilogram oil equivalent (kgoe) energy consumption per capita per year will be required).
2. Deployment of renewable energy such as solar, hydro, etc., cannot enable India to become an advanced country. Thus, only way out is a rapid scale-up of nuclear energy.

Nuclear energy to combat climate change:

1. Nuclear energy has emerged as one of the cleanest and safest of energies capable of effectively countering climate change.
2. With a closed nuclear fuel cycle, waste issue has also been reduced to a negligible level. 
3. Nuclear energy should be scaled up to a couple of thousand GWe for an optimum solution to reach net-zero in a developed India.
4. Six-pronged national strategy for a rapid scale up of nuclear energy:
   1. Indigenous 700 MWe PHWR (Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor), the first unit of which is already in commercial operation, should be the prime workhorse for base load electrical capacity addition. Additional units have to be constructed for implementation.
   2. Small Module Reactors (SMR) have to build indigenously at a large no. of sites that would be vacated by retiring coal plants in the coming decades.
   3. Well-proven 220 MWe PHWR units can be offered as partially owned captive units for electricity and hydrogen for energy-intensive industries such as metals, chemicals, and fertilisers.
   4. A high temperature reactor for direct hydrogen production without resorting to electrolysis has to be developed which would enable cheaper green hydrogen production and reduce pressure on excessive electrification of the energy system in the country.
   5. Second and third stage nuclear-power programme development has to be fastened to unleash thorium energy potential in accordance with the pre-existing plans for long-term sustainable energy supply.
   6. Rapid deployment of new nuclear-energy capacity has to be done to credibly address the climate-change challenge at the global level.