A nuclear dream turns into a mirage
Last Updated : 23 Aug 2011 12:35:59 AM IST
Mamata Banerjee’s objection to a nuclear power station in West Bengal is yet another indication of the difficulties which the Manmohan Singh government will face while pursuing its pet project of changing the country’s energy profile from coal-based thermal to nuclear plants. In view of the agitations which the proposed Jaitapur project in Maharashtra faced, it is obvious that the centre will not find it easy to locate suitable sites. As it is, these have to be preferably as far as practicable from the country’s two hostile neighbours in the north. In addition, if the states resist their installation, then the choice of probable spots will become extremely limited. The West Bengal chief minister’s disapproval may be based on a reluctance to allocate farmlands, which is why the proposed site has been shifted to Orissa. But this is not the only reason why there isn’t much support for nuclear power. It was not for nothing, therefore, that the prime minister harped on the safety factor in his speech to the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in Kolkata last Sunday, for the disaster in Japan after the tsunami has renewed fears about the danger posed by nuclear power.But no less important are the growing misgivings about the government’s wisdom of pushing through the deal with the US in 2008, especially after the nuclear suppliers group’s recent backtracking on its promises on accepting India as a de facto nuclear power. As a result, there are no signs that India will have access to the enrichment and reprocessing technology which it expected in view of the ‘clear waiver’ which the NSG was supposed to provide. The US, too, does not appear to be as enthusiastic about the deal as it was in George Bush’s time. As for countries like France and Russia with which India has inked agreements about reactors, it will be difficult to sustain their interest if New Delhi cannot find suitable locations. It is now clear that the adverse fallout from the deal is much wider than the IAEA’s intrusive inspection of nuclear projects, which the strategic experts initially feared.
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