India Nuclear News and Discussion 4 July 2011

Neela · Post by **Neela** » 18 Jun 2014 11:49

Kaipullai's little dated but hilarious take on protests agaainst KKNPP : 5 reasons why there is something wrong with the protests in Kudankulam Part:1

Who is Kaipullai?

Kaipullai, is an unemployed youth of India, who like every Indian wants to say a lot of things, in a lot of words to a lot of people who don’t want to listen.

More here: http://kaipullai.com/about/

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 20 Jun 2014 13:03

India increases its uranium enrichment programme : JANES

Using commercial satellite imagery, IHS Jane’s experts have identified a possible new uranium hexafluoride plant at the Indian Rare Metals Plant (IRMP) near Mysore. This will support new centrifuges that will substantially expand India’s uranium enrichment capacity, most likely to facilitate the construction of an increased number of naval reactors to expand the country’s nuclear submarine fleet, but potentially also to support the development of thermonuclear weapons. IHS Jane’s experts assess that the new uranium enrichment facility could become operational by mid- to late-2015.

Mysore’s original centrifuge plant was constructed in 1992, although in 2010 site clearance for a new, even larger, suspected centrifuge hall began. It is this new facility that could soon be operational. India is generally vocal in publicising its defence industry successes, but has revealed little about operations at Mysore, possibly to reduce attention to its nuclear trade agreements with the US.

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 21 Jun 2014 06:18

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns- ... 8352.story
India nuke enrichment plant expansion operational in 2015: IHS

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is expanding a covert uranium enrichment plant that could potentially support the development of thermonuclear weapons, a defense research group said on Friday, raising the stakes in a regional arms race with China and Pakistan.The revelation highlights the lack of nuclear safeguards on India under new Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ( This qualify as MDY statement) while sanctions-bound Iran faces minute scrutiny in talks with world powers over its own nuclear program. New units at the Indian Rare Metals Plant would boost India's ability to produce weapons-grade uranium to twice the amount needed for its planned nuclear-powered submarine fleet, IHS Jane's said.The facility, located near Mysore in southern India, could be operational by mid-2015, the research group said, basing its findings on analysis of satellite imagery and public statements by Indian officials."Taking into account all the enriched uranium likely to be needed by the Indian nuclear submarine fleet, there is likely to be a significant excess," Matthew Clements, editor of IHS Jane's Intelligence Review, told Reuters."One potential use of this would be for the development of thermonuclear weapons."No comment was available from the Indian government press office or the foreign ministry. Pakistan reacted with consternation, with a senior aide to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif saying the news underscored India's "established hegemony.""This is something that India has been trying to develop for a long time," said Tariq Azeem. "We don't want any nuclear race. That doesn't bode well for either country."

RoyG · Post by **RoyG** » 21 Jun 2014 06:37

Austin wrote:India increases its uranium enrichment programme : JANES

Using commercial satellite imagery, IHS Jane’s experts have identified a possible new uranium hexafluoride plant at the Indian Rare Metals Plant (IRMP) near Mysore. This will support new centrifuges that will substantially expand India’s uranium enrichment capacity, most likely to facilitate the construction of an increased number of naval reactors to expand the country’s nuclear submarine fleet, but potentially also to support the development of thermonuclear weapons. IHS Jane’s experts assess that the new uranium enrichment facility could become operational by mid- to late-2015.

Mysore’s original centrifuge plant was constructed in 1992, although in 2010 site clearance for a new, even larger, suspected centrifuge hall began. It is this new facility that could soon be operational. India is generally vocal in publicising its defence industry successes, but has revealed little about operations at Mysore, possibly to reduce attention to its nuclear trade agreements with the US.

It doesn't make sense building a boomer fleet unless you are going to place ICBM with warheads which can sizzle above the ground with thermonuclear lotuses. I see India testing sometime within the decade especially after we get the economy going and US influence recedes a little. Of course, we can also detonate after NK does it and use the excuse that they are validating for China/Pak. We have to stockpile fissile fuel like the Japanese and then start cranking out bombs when the time is right.

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 23 Jun 2014 05:12

India more open to n-inspections

India has decided to enhance transparency of its nuclear infrastructure by ratifying an Additional Protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — a step that in a single stroke can be leveraged to boost energy security and lift international confidence.

The Additional Protocol will cover only those facilities which are monitored by the IAEA, and will have no bearing on the non-safeguarded facilities which are used for building weapons.

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 23 Jun 2014 05:15

IAEA gets red carpet from India

New Delhi: Signalling the continuity of policy, the new government has ratified the Additional Protocol, a commitment given under the Indo-US nuclear deal by the previous dispensation to grant greater ease to the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor India’s civilian atomic programme.

The Additional Protocol was ratified last week and this has been conveyed to the Vienna-based IAEA, the global watchdog of nuclear activities, sources said.

IAEA gets greater access to India’s nuclear programme

The sources pointed out that India wants to send a strong signal to the international community that it is a “serious and responsible” nuclear weapons state amid its keenness to become a member of the NSG.

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 23 Jun 2014 15:31

16 June 2014: Nuclear forces reduced while modernizations continue, says SIPRI

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 23 Jun 2014 15:37

dont think they have proper figure for india/pak

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 23 Jun 2014 20:05

do we have more detailed list?

» Nuclear fuel complex in Hyderabad

» Nuclear reactors in Rajasthan

» Reactors at Tarapur

» India’s largest nuclear reactors at Kudankulam
http://www.niticentral.com/2014/06/23/i ... 32118.html
?

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 24 Jun 2014 08:05

Ahead of Modi’s US trip, IAEA pact ratified.

The ratification will not just come as a reassurance to the US over India's commitment to the agreement ahead of PM Narendra Modi's visit to Washington in September, but is also likely to pave the way for India's membership of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 25 Jun 2014 06:05

krishnan wrote:dont think they have proper figure for india/pak

Whatever it is, Pakistan must be happy that they have 10 more warheads than India. That is what counts for it.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 25 Jun 2014 06:07

Positive Step but Hurdles Remain - Edit, The Hindu

The Nuclear Liability Bill, which puts the onus of damages on the supplier, continues to hamper normalisation of India’s nuclear trade with countries including the U.S. and France. The bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement between India and Japan, which would allow New Delhi to import nuclear know-how from Tokyo, is also not yet concluded. The Modi government therefore has significant hurdles to cross beyond the ratification of the AP, before India is accepted as a nuclear weapon power, outside the framework of the NPT, freely engaging in nuclear commerce. It is only when that happens can atomic energy expand as a growing and salient component of India’s energy security basket.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 28 Jun 2014 13:53

PFBR, Kalpakkam to attain criticality within 3 months - New Indian Express

CHENNAI: The integrated commissioning of the indigenously developed 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam, which uses liquid sodium to cool the reactor, has commenced and the reactor will attain criticality in the next two to three months, Prabhat Kumar, chairman and managing director of Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (BHAVINI), has said.

Disclosing this to Express, he said the sodium is now being heated below 95 degrees Celsius before being transferred from the tank. “The integrated commissioning of the reactor has started on Wednesday and we are trying to attain criticality in the next few months.”

Significantly, the closed fuel cycle option has been chosen for the PFBR, under which the spent fuel discharged from the reactor is reprocessed and converted into indigenously developed unique plutonium-rich mixed carbide fuel.

According to scientists, fast breeder reactors would make effective utilisation of the depleting uranium resource in the country, and use plutonium as a fuel with significant reduction in radioactive waste.

Construction has resumed to develop the Fast Reactor Fuel Cycle Facility for recycling the fuel from PFBR, including fuel fabrication and assembly, reprocessing and waste management.

The FRFCF got the nod from Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board in February and construction of the facility is underway at a fast pace, says P R Vasudeva Rao, director of Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam.

Maintaining that the country has several nuclear reprocessing plants which supply fuel for thermal plants, he says this, however, would be the only facility that would reprocess fuel for fast breeder reactors on a large scale. According to Rao, initially tests were carried out on a pilot plant called CORAL (Compact Reprocessing of Advanced fuels in Lead shielded cells), formerly known as the Lead Mini Cell (LMC). “We learnt reprocessing of fuel catering to PFBR in the last 10 to 15 years,” he revealed. PFBR is also an important milestone for India’s three-stage nuclear power programme. The country has chosen the closed fuel cycle option in view of its phased expansion of nuclear power generation extending through the second and third stages, whereby full energy potential of uranium and thorium could be utilised.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 28 Jun 2014 14:20

SSridhar wrote:
krishnan wrote:dont think they have proper figure for india/pak
Whatever it is, Pakistan must be happy that they have 10 more warheads than India. That is what counts for it.

With the bunch of minimalist dhimmi WKK jokers that we had in power for the past decade, I wouldn't be too surprised if the numbers for Indo-Pak are "secoolar" and roughly at parity.

Rony · Post by **Rony** » 28 Jun 2014 15:14

India's Unused Nuclear Leverage

The news that India had ratified the 1997 Additional Protocol permitting more intensive and intrusive inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle and research including nuclear installations and facilities excluded by the Indian government from the safeguards regime came as a shock. Especially as India did not condition its consent, as did the US in 1998, to the IAEA sticking to restrictive procedures for “appropriately managed access”. IAEA is hence free to inspect what it wants when it wants in order to get a “comprehensive picture” of India’s nuclear activity. Whatever happened to the dissatisfaction expressed in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s election manifesto with the nuclear situation generally?

This development coming so soon after Narendra Modi assumed command suggests one of two things: Contrary to his party’s manifesto the prime minister had mulled the problem of how to advance India’s nuclear interests, and arrived at a definite view ere he assumed office that placating the US by buying its Westinghouse AP 1000-enriched uranium-fuelled light water reactors (LWRs) and thereby ensuring the country’s formal entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) was best. Or, and this seems the more likely explanation, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) that has invested heavily in the Congress party-Manmohan Singh regime’s policy of nuclear giveaways used the excuse of the upcoming Washington meeting with US president Barack Obama to push its institutional agenda and secure Modi’s approval, as concurrently Minister for Atomic Energy, to “complete” the 2008 civilian nuclear cooperation deal with America.

The empowerment of the bureaucracy in Modi’s scheme of things without the prime minister first articulating a geostrategic vision and laying down new policy guidelines, put continuity of policy at a premium—something that was foreseen (“Modi’s ‘India First’ Agenda”, May 2, 2014). In this regard, the MEA was no doubt aided by the fact that neither Modi nor Sushma Swaraj, appointed as minister for external affairs, had other than limited exposure to international relations and the conduct of foreign policy would, therefore, be inclined to accept its advice. Except Swaraj was a stalwart of the parliamentary fight over the nuclear deal that, but for Amar Singh and his reportedly US-lubricated antics to convince the Samajwadi Party into supporting the ruling coalition, would have brought down the Manmohan Singh government on July 8, 2008. And she was in the forefront of the opposition move to blunt the nuclear deal by forcing the Congress regime to accept the 2010 Civilian Nuclear Liability Act. Apparently, by the time foreign secretary Sujatha Singh and officials in the disarmament and international security division briefed the minister, Swaraj had forgotten the reasons why the BJP had opposed the nuclear deal that Washington desperately wanted and the weak-minded Manmohan Singh fell in with, and failed to counsel rethink to the PM.

There reportedly was not much discussion in Modi’s office, and the contra-viewpoint championed, other than this analyst, by the late P K Iyengar, ex-chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, A N Prasad, former director, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, and A Gopalakrishnan, ex-chairman, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, that informed the BJP’s thinking when in opposition, was ignored. Let’s therefore enumerate some important reasons why the original nuclear deal was bad and follow-up actions such as signing the Additional Protocol are, too. One, the nuclear deal torpedoes the 1955 three-stage Bhabha Plan based on large reserves in-country of thorium for energy self-sufficiency by diverting attention, effort, and monies from the pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) technology (first stage) India has specialised in, and from speedily developing for subsequent stages the breeder reactor, and upscaling the Kamini thorium experimental reactor to funding the purchase of exorbitantly-priced foreign LWRs. These reactors costing $6-7 billion per 1,000MW plant will produce unaffordable electricity at `40-50 a unit at present prices! Two, uninterrupted operation of the string of foreign LWRs will become hostage to India’s good behaviour in the economic and foreign policy fields as the supply of nuclear fuel packages and spares can be choked at any time. Thus, the dependency syndrome that prevails with respect to conventional armaments will now be replicated in the nuclear energy sector. Three, the position of foreign supplier countries will be further strengthened with regard to shaping India’s foreign policy choices by threats of extraordinary economic disruption of, say, 10,000MW of power from the imported reactors going off the grid. Four, these things will happen if India resumes nuclear testing, which it needs to do to remove design flaws in its thermonuclear weapons. Five, in which case, tens of billions of dollars invested in these white elephants will become radioactive waste, needing expensive vitrification and entombment. And finally, with all but eight of the PHWRs under safeguards, the country’s capacity for surge production of weapons-grade plutonium has been severely hurt. Is the goodwill of the US worth surrendering “strategic autonomy”?

India never needed membership in NSG to export its 220MW PHWRs and related technologies to eager Third World states. Had it, as a non-signatory to the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty, done so in the past 20 years, the country by now would have had a flourishing nuclear industry, a tier of countries tied to India outside the non-proliferation structures, and amortised the huge public investment in the nuclear energy programme. Some African countries, moreover, could have paid for these reactors with their natural uranium reserves. Besides propelling the Bhabha Plan, it would have meant exercising hard leverage as spoiler that could have been used to extract the rights and privileges of a nuclear weapons-state and NSG membership from the US.

It requires iron will and strategic imagination which New Delhi has always been short of, but China has in plenty. Time and again the US, Russia, and Western Europe have been shoved to the wall, and Beijing has compelled respectful treatment from them in return for promising not to do worse! It is why China is advantaged and India is not, and why they are so differently placed in the emerging world order.

Aditya_V · Post by **Aditya_V** » 28 Jun 2014 15:26

\the above article seems to point the recent decision is a blunder, are our leaders that naive?

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 28 Jun 2014 20:15

The point being made out is that we shouldn't dump HB's grand vision for Indian N-independence.Signing on intrusive intl. stipulations that might stunt our capability and even exports of our N-tech to Vietnam for example,must be avoided.The other table shows a very low fig. for Chinese nukes.I posted recently new data which suspects that China actually has about 800+ warheads,though its SSBN capability is vastyl inferior to western ones,where even Britain and France have far superior SSBN subs and missiles like Trident.

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 28 Jun 2014 20:34

^^^
The same blunders are going to occur in the defence sector.

Baboo(n) vested interests will dominate, trying to sideline and elbow out knowledgeable folks like VK Singh.

Modi must make haste slowly

ShauryaT · Post by **ShauryaT** » 28 Jun 2014 20:40

Philip wrote:The point being made out is that we shouldn't dump HB's grand vision for Indian N-independence.Signing on intrusive intl. stipulations that might stunt our capability and even exports of our N-tech to Vietnam for example,must be avoided.The other table shows a very low fig. for Chinese nukes.I posted recently new data which suspects that China actually has about 800+ warheads,though its SSBN capability is vastyl inferior to western ones,where even Britain and France have far superior SSBN subs and missiles like Trident.

China's numbers are all over the place with estimates as high as 1800 warheads. What the west does is track China's long range delivery platforms quite well and publishes these numbers. What they exclude are the 1000's of short and medium range missiles and fighter/bomber delivery platforms that are no threat to them but a huge issue for the region. How many of these short/medium range platforms are nuclear armed and how much of its fissile material is used to create warheads is anyone's guess. Strategic deception is their game. Best to track Russian, Japanese, Koran and Indian estimates of China than solely western ones.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 28 Jun 2014 20:55

Aditya_V wrote:\the above article seems to point the recent decision is a blunder, are our leaders that naive?

The game is bigger. The goal is to bait PRC.

Neela · Post by **Neela** » 29 Jun 2014 02:43

Some hearsay from KKNPP.
Anti-KKNPP movement has lost almost all steam. Some stray elements still claiming weird medical fallouts but by and large , there is little traction.
What happened was that the government officials were very reasonable and several indirect jobs were promised ...and most promises were kept. This did not go well with SP Udayakumar's group as their movement was being undermined by people in the same & neighboring villages taking up indirect jobs offered by KKNPP. This has been going on even before the protests got media attention.
With groups clearly divided and with sudden media attention coming in 2013,tensions just rose. Country bombs hurled, catches & boats being sabotaged etc were the result. Apparently, police played one group against the other . With such hostility from both neighbors and govt officials, those against KKNPP started to make mistakes ( threatening people, using violence, damage to public propterty, public nuisance ) . This allowed police file several cases against a lot of key PMANE members. And once you have several cases filed, you are called in for questioning at odd times throughout the week...basically your normal schedule is affected. You need a lot of stamina & money to keep with this nuisance from police......this broke the back of PMANE movement.
This artcile here gives an idea as to what was happening in the villages.
To make things worse for themselves, PMANE has had foreingn nationals protesting too. This was always going to make both police and intelligence extra interested. And in their first interaction with scientists (before the protests began) , the apparently asked very technical and detailed questions. This alarmed the scientists....they apparently got intelligence services involved immediately.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 29 Jun 2014 02:52

Indian population is helping foreign intel! With just a protest!

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 29 Jun 2014 03:53

Neela wrote:Some hearsay from KKNPP.
Anti-KKNPP movement has lost almost all steam. Some stray elements still claiming weird medical fallouts but by and large , there is little traction.
What happened was that the government officials were very reasonable and several indirect jobs were promised ...and most promises were kept. This did not go well with SP Udayakumar's group as their movement was being undermined by people in the same & neighboring villages taking up indirect jobs offered by KKNPP. This has been going on even before the protests got media attention.
With groups clearly divided and with sudden media attention coming in 2013,tensions just rose. Country bombs hurled, catches & boats being sabotaged etc were the result. Apparently, police played one group against the other . With such hostility from both neighbors and govt officials, those against KKNPP started to make mistakes ( threatening people, using violence, damage to public propterty, public nuisance ) . This allowed police file several cases against a lot of key PMANE members. And once you have several cases filed, you are called in for questioning at odd times throughout the week...basically your normal schedule is affected. You need a lot of stamina & money to keep with this nuisance from police......this broke the back of PMANE movement.
This artcile here gives an idea as to what was happening in the villages.
To make things worse for themselves, PMANE has had foreingn nationals protesting too. This was always going to make both police and intelligence extra interested. And in their first interaction with scientists (before the protests began) , the apparently asked very technical and detailed questions. This alarmed the scientists....they apparently got intelligence services involved immediately.

In very simple terms, people were PAID OFF. Direct CASH was delivered to homes of all protesters, amount depending and varying per importance of person and ability to influence society.

The GOI has also learned quite a few new tricks, it looks like.

Panchayat members, headmen and local leaders have willingly accepted the "gifts" and backed off before the heavy stick was used. That's why that rascal udaykumar got raped in the elections.

My chaiwallas are very senior guys on the official side and long standing local businessmen of repute on the ground selling to and financing the fishermen.

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 01 Jul 2014 05:33

Nuclear power plant near Chennai all set for milestone event.

Far removed from any protest-din, a nuclear power plant 40 km south of Chennai, is all set to achieving a milestone – loading of liquid sodium. The operators of the nuclear power station, which is half the size of the first unit of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, are awaiting the green signal from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, the country’s nuclear power regulator.

For the 500 MW ‘prototype fast breeding reactor’, loading of 1,750 tonnes of the coolant liquid sodium is practically the last big event before the unit starts generating electricity.This is an important milestone because nuclear establishments in all countries are watching India’s PFBR, the first plutonium-based fast breeder reactor anywhere in the world.

The Rs 5,677-crore techno-economic demonstration plant that a government of India-owned company is putting up is of crucial importance to the country’s nuclear plans. Its success would set the ball rolling for a clutch of ‘fast breeders reactors’—at least six of them have been planned. Two of the six would come right next door to the PFBR.

Fast breeder reactors are a big deal for Uranium-scarce India because they produce more nuclear fuel than they eat up. You blanket the ‘core’, where the fuel is simmering, with natural Uranium, the neutrons flying out of the core convert the Uranium into Plutonium – a valuable fuel.You blanket it with Thorium, you end up with Uranium – 233, a variety of Uranium that has split-able atoms. (Heat is produced when the atoms’ nuclei are split by a runaway neutron, and the heat is converted into electricity.)

The PFBR will have a blanket of a mixture of natural Uranium and Thorium, so apart from electricity, you also get nuclear fuels.

India has a fourth of all the Thorium discovered on this planet, so it is wise to use it gainfully. Problem is, Thorium is useless as a fuel, until it is converted into Uranium-233, for which you need fast breeder reactors.

Then why didn’t India start building fast breeders right from the beginning? Because it is not possible.

The fast breeders need a lot of Uranium, or Plutonium. Uranium, India does not have much of, and no other country would give us after 1974, when Pokhran-I happened. Plutonium does not occur in nature, it has to be produced in a nuclear reactor.

So, the country had to wait for four decades to have sufficient stock of Plutonium to fire up the fast breeders. And now, it is happening.

Asked when would the PFBR start producing electricity, a senior official of Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Ltd, which is putting up the plant, said that it would be technically possible to do that in 4-5 months after the liquid sodium loading happens. But then, the schedule would entirely depend upon the regulator, AERB. And the Board could hardly be expected to rush through matters—it would want every step checked out multiple times to satisfy itself over safety.

But a little delay would not matter here—after all, it is still a prototype, and in any case it is already well over the planned six years since the construction began in 2004.

RoyG · Post by **RoyG** » 01 Jul 2014 07:11

I think that Modi and Doval have decided that it is best to test after his the first 5 years is complete. We def need to validate our TN designs. Perhaps in the meantime he will begin stockpiling fissile material like the Japanese. There is just no point to building a boomer fleet and long range missiles if we cant increase the yield/weight ratio. We are stuck. Not sure how the PMO plans to get out of this one.

merlin · Post by **merlin** » 01 Jul 2014 12:15

Very, very, very disquieting news on signing the additional protocol. I had misgivings on reading the headlines but only now managed to read Bharat Karnad's article. And if the first para is true we are signing away our crown jewels so to speak. Unlimited access for the IAEA has potential to be a disaster. WTF is going on?

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 04 Jul 2014 01:23

Gyaan from Ayatollah Halfbright...

India's New Uranium Enrichment Plant in Karnataka
http://www.isis-online.org/uploads/isis ... _FINAL.pdf

Gerard · Post by **Gerard** » 04 Jul 2014 01:27

Khudapura nuclear site: Exclusive image

The Hindu has exclusively obtained an Airbus imagery from the U.S.-based think tank, dated April 17, 2014, showing how land is being divided up near Khudapura, Chitradurga District, Karnataka.

disha · Post by **disha** » 04 Jul 2014 05:41

How is the above airbus image so perfect? It means that the airbus was carrying specialized photographic equipment?

PS: Answering my own question - "airbus imagery" is a software that takes in sat. images to provide a service to its user. http://www.astrium-geo.com/en/65-satellite-imagery

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 04 Jul 2014 20:30

Meanwhile India should be watching EU while ten nations petition for Nuclear power ...
(The Czech government has expressed the common view of ten European countries in favor of nuclear power in a letter to the European Commission)

Here is the letter:

Dear Commisioner,
On behalf of the Ministers of Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the United Kingdom responsible for energy policy, I take the liberty to address you on our common view of nuclear power within the EU energy market and its role in ensuring energy security and decarbonisation.

Over recent months the issue of energy security within the EU has evolved, and we all agree that nuclear power will have an important role in the future of the EU's energy mix. We believe that Member States must maintain their right to determine their own energy mix and nuclear power will therefore have a greater role in helping individual Member States secure their own indigenous energy supply.
Many Member States have immediate challenges in bringing forward the generating capacity needed to create a secure, low carbon and affordable energy system. There are a number of failures in energy markets across Europe bringing serious concerns about the ability of markets alone to offer the sufficient security required to stimulate investment on a purely commercial basis. National support mechanisms, consistent witht the Internal Energy Market and the competition rules provided by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), may therefore be needed. The Comission itself has recognised, in its Communication from 5 November 2013, that such intervention might be necessary "to secure a level playing field, overcome market failures, foster technology and innovation deployment and, more generally, support the market in delivering appropriate investment signals." An agreed 2030 climate and energy package and the full implementation of the third energy package should contribute to a well-functioning electricity market that fulfills our future needs.
Well diversified energy systems are essential if we want to ensure energy security. We need an energy mix that will affordably meet our decarbonization objectives and meet energy demand. In the last decade the European Union has faced a continuous decline in its domestic energy production. This could be decelerated in the medium term by increasing the use of renewables according to EU policy and maintaining or developing nuclear energy according to policies of individual Member States. Nuclear energy's significant role in the European energy mix should be clearly recognized.
We are convinced that nuclear energy should keep its proper place in European energy policy in accordance with the Treaties. Nuclear energy perfectly fits the three pillars of energy policy as reflected in the TFEU: security of supply, sustainability and competitiveness. Moreover the Euratom Treaty provides for obligations of the European institutions to support the development of nuclear power. In our view, nuclear energy, for its physical and economic characteristics, is entitled to be treated as an indigenous source of energy with respect to energy security, having an important social and economic dimension.
Nuclear power stations insofar as they are compliant with the highest safety standards, bring significant benefits to EU decarbonization, energy security and economic growth. In this respect, the European leadership in nuclear industry should be preserved. Unfortunately, it should be recognized that numerous market failures are currently preventing investment coming forward and this shuld not be overlooked by the Commission. Nuclear energy which requires capital intensive and long-term investment, should be supported by market mechanisms to create a predictable investment framework.
We call on the Commission to reflect on these circumstances in its crucial decisions and political commitments. In particular, it is important that the market failures and the need to hedge against investment risks are accounted for in order to create the necessary market conditions for investment in new nuclear build projects in Europe. A technology neutral approach creating a level playing field for all low-emission sources is crucial. We have to make wise strategic decisions that will secure stable energy supplies at competitive prices for future generations.
Yours sincerely

Jan Mládek
Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 07 Jul 2014 13:12

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/417 ... crore.html

IISc scraps Rs 2,000-crore accelerator project at C'Durga
Prashanth G N, Bangalore, July 6, 2014, DHNS:

In what could be termed as a setback for Chitradurga district and the State, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has dropped plans to construct a huge particle accelerator (similar to a circular tunnel) in Chitradurga at a cost of Rs 2,000 crore. DH file photo
In what could be termed as a setback for Chitradurga district and the State, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has dropped plans to construct a huge particle accelerator (similar to a circular tunnel) in Chitradurga at a cost of
Rs 2,000 crore.

The project had received in-principle approval. It was to be part of the 10,000-acre land parcel earmarked in Challakere, Chitradurga district, for Isro, BARC and DRDO, apart from IISc itself which is setting up a second campus there.

The facility was critical for particle physics research in India. The elation with which the announcement of the synchrotron facility had been received a couple of years ago is now erased.

Apart from benefits to the vast field of materials sciences, the giant circular facility which was to be built over an area of 100 acres (making it one of the largest such particle facilities in India), it would have proved useful in developing better medical imaging equipment, aiding drug discovery and research, developing therapies to treat cancer and even help in understanding the reaction of living cells to drugs etc.

Chitradurga district though may not lose out on being the second largest science hub after Bangalore because the other facilities by Isro, BARC, DRDO may go on.

There is anxiety of course among officials about protests by locals who want to reclaim the fertile land acquired for science and space institutions.

The locals say that the land taken away is grazing land, vital for sheep rearing. Initially, they began protesting only against IISc, but now they have been opposing all other facilities too.

While IISc will continue with its plan to build the second campus there, the accelerator will not come up for now. Senior scientists say a major reason for dropping the plan was financial crunch.

“IISc runs on a budget of Rs 400-500 crore every year. Where can it bring Rs 2,000 crore from? Only if the Centre shows signs of wanting to fund the project, can it move forward.

The proposal has been hanging and we understand files have not yet moved. It appears there may be a financial crunch. Since we can’t do it on our own, we have dropped plans for the facility for now,” a senior officer said.

But what has also not impressed the IISc is the lack of planning at the Centre. “There aren’t even plans to go ahead with the project. It should be made clear whether it would or would not come up. But there seems to be no thinking of the sort. The accelerator is a national programme and IISc alone cannot undertake it. There has to be a diverse collaboration,” a scientist explained.

Other factors too impacted IISc’s thinking. There are a range of communities living around the land parcel, which say their grazing land has been taken away.

There have been protests by locals and NGOs. Scientists feel it would be difficult to build a massive scientific instrument without locals feeling positive
The giant accelerator also requires to be fairly isolated from immediate habitation.

Hi-tech experiments would be conducted inside the facility and would naturally require communities and residential habitats to be away. But here habitats are fairly close to the facility.
The project was announced at a time when industrialist Ratan Tata was taking interest in the research concerns at IISc as there were plans to make a grant to IISc on the occasion of its centenary celebrations.

Besides that, the project would have taken Chitradurga to the national and international stage with particle physics being the in-thing today.

CERN’s accelerator in Geneva is one of the largest in the world where particle physics experiments are undertaken. Chitradurga would have had some sort of interaction with CERN which would have lent it stature as a science hub in the making.

panduranghari · Post by **panduranghari** » 07 Jul 2014 17:43

svinayak wrote:
Aditya_V wrote:\the above article seems to point the recent decision is a blunder, are our leaders that naive?
The game is bigger. The goal is to bait PRC.

Please elaborate.

dinesha · Post by **dinesha** » 08 Jul 2014 18:00

X-Post

Nuclear triad weapons ready for deployment: DRDO
http://www.ptinews.com/news/4893779_Nuc ... -DRDO.html

New Delhi, Jul 7 (PTI) The weapons systems for the country's nuclear triad, including submarine-launched ballistic missiles, are "fully ready" for deployment, DRDO chief Avinash Chander said today.

Addressing a gathering at an IDSA event, he said the nuclear reactor on board the indigenously-developed INS Arihant nuclear submarine is also critical and is running on its "full power" before it is launched for sea trials.

http://www.livemint.com/Politics/lvVxsu ... ource=copy

New Delhi: The weapons systems for the country’s nuclear triad, including submarine-launched ballistic missiles, are “fully ready” for deployment, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief Avinash Chander said on Monday.

Addressing a gathering at an event, he said the nuclear reactor on board the indigenously-developed INS Arihant nuclear submarine is also critical and is running on its “full power” before it is launched for sea trials.

The weapons for the nuclear triad are “either fully developed or are ready to be deployed,” Chander said. The nuclear triad is the capability to launch a nuclear weapon from sea, air and land. India will complete it once the Arihant is operational giving it the option to retaliate to nuclear strike through submarine-launched BO-5 missiles. The Arihant is expected to be launched for sea trials in next few months.

The Agni series missiles can be used to carry out attacks from land while some of the Indian Air Force airrcraft are also capable of launching nuclear attacks. The DRDO completed the development of the over 700km-range BO-5 missiles recently and they would be fired from the Arihant during its sea trials. The organization is also preparing to develop the longer-range K-4 underwater missile in near future and some of its trials have been completed successfully.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 18 Jul 2014 09:11

Kalpakkam FBR to be commissioned in March 2015 - T.S.Subramanian, The Hindu

Things are on course for the commissioning of the 500-MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) before the end of this financial year (March 2015) at Kalpakkam. The loading of 1,750 tonnes of liquid sodium into seven loops in the reactor will commence in two weeks from now. Dummy fuel has already been loaded into the reactor. While plutonium-uranium mixed oxide is the reactor’s fuel, liquid sodium is the coolant. The PFBR’s generation of 500 MWe will mark a “Hanuman jump”, as French nuclear scientist George Vendryes put it, from the 13-MWe Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) currently operational at Kalpakkam.

“The PFBR team is determined to move ahead in compliance with all the requirements specified by the regulatory authorities. We have to ensure that the PFBR operates smoothly and successfully. We have to ensure that this breeder technology is safe, robust and cheap,” declared Prabhat Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (BHAVINI).

BHAVINI, a public sector undertaking of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), has been mandated to build a series of breeder reactors to provide energy independence to the country. The Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam, designed and developed the technology for the PFBR. They are called breeder reactors because they breed more fuel than they consume.

Announcing that all electrical systems in the PFBR were operational, Mr. Kumar said: “The PFBR should be commissioned safely without sodium leaking from the system. We have to transfer 1,750 tonnes of sodium from ten tanks to the seven loops. We have completed most of the piping and instrumentation. We have energised most of the equipment. Instruments and sensors are connected to the Control Room. Results of the tests done so far are encouraging. Most of the support systems are fully commissioned and operating satisfactorily. They include raw water system, service water system, air mask system, nitrogen system, argon system etc. All the electrical systems including the switch-yard and battery banks are operational.”

This reactor is different from the fleet of Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRS) already operating in India. Fabrication of gigantic PFBR components involved highly complex technology.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 20 Jul 2014 13:05

KKNPP Unit II to generate power in 1Q 2015 - The Hindu

Loading of enriched uranium fuel in the second reactor of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project is likely to begin in October as the reactor is ready for the hot run following the successful hydro tests conducted recently. The second reactor is expected to start generating power in the first quarter of 2015.

During an informal chat with reporters here on Saturday, KKNPP additional chief engineer and chairman of public awareness committee S. Kalirajan said steps were on to take the second reactor to criticality stage as hydro tests had been completed. It would soon be ready for hot run, an important activity that would take place before the reactor is loaded with enriched uranium fuel rods.

Hot run

Hot run means heating the primary coolant water to the reactor’s operating temperature of 280 degrees Celsius. It will take place with the dummy fuel assemblies, which were loaded into the reactor a few months ago. The dummy fuel assemblies have the same configuration as the real fuel assemblies, but have no enriched uranium inside.

After completion of the hot run, the reactor would be disassembled and the control rod drives removed. The cover of the reactor would be opened up and the dummy fuel assemblies inside the reactor vessel removed. Then the reactor vessel, the main coolant pipelines and all associated systems would be inspected for their integrity using highly sophisticated robotic machines.

The results of the hot run and inspection by the robotic machines will be reviewed by the Indian specialists along with their Russian counterparts.

After further review by the regulatory authorities, the KKNPP officials will make a request to the regulatory authorities for loading the real fuel assemblies into the reactor.

The first fuel assemblies will be loaded in the beginning of October and after all the 163 fuel assemblies are loaded, the first approach to its criticality will begin. “You can expect full-fledged power generation from the second unit in the first quarter of 2015,” Mr. Kalirajan said.

Nikhil T · Post by **Nikhil T** » 21 Jul 2014 05:54

PM Modi to visit BARC on Monday!

Heartening to see that this news only came today, no media has been invited and this is the only engagement of the PM in Mumbai! So he comes for a few hours and goes back. Must be an important briefing!

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 24 Jul 2014 10:42

Nuclear fog hangs over Modi's US visit - Narayan Lakshman, The Hindu

As the Indian administration gears up to launch a civil nuclear cooperation blitz with the U.S. and reiterate its petition to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington in September, industry experts said that decisions in these complex matters “will not materialise overnight,” and New Delhi may have “painted itself into a corner,” on nuclear liability.

Speaking to The Hindu Omer Brown, legal counsel for Contractors International Group on Nuclear Liability, said that in theory more progress could be made during the high-level visit, yet it is difficult for U.S. corporations to create an insurance pool against the risk of a nuclear accident in India given that foreign inspectors were not permitted to examine the facilities for insurance purposes and could only “train” Indian inspectors to go in and undertake this critical task.

With continuing debate around Section 17(b) and Article 46 of India’s nuclear liability law raising thorny questions about channelling liability, Mr. Brown said, “The only way forward is for [India’s nuclear liability] law to be amended.”

Meanwhile South Block’s calls for India’s admittance to the elite nuclear exporter’s club appeared to be falling on deaf ears, as no decisions were taken about this at the NSG’s meeting in Argentina last month. and, “The matter is not consensual in the group and it can be assumed there will be continued consultations about how to proceed,” Mark Hibss, Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment’s Nuclear Policy Programme told The Hindu .

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 24 Jul 2014 10:46

Modi ready to fast-track NSG issues - Suhasini Haider, The Hindu

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has prepared the ground for his crucial bilateral meetings in September focusing on nuclear issues – specifically membership of the Nuclear Supplier Groups – during his talks with Prime Minister Abe of Japan, Premier Tony Abbott of Australia, Chinese President Xi Jinping and finally U.S. President Barack Obama.

In Mumbai this week, Mr. Modi addressed scientists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). At the classified briefing, he told them to keep to targets of tripling nuclear power generation by 2023, and also indicating a greater role for private players while saying “nuclear energy must be commercially viable and competitive with other sources of clean energy in the long run.”

The Prime Minister’s speech indicated that the government now plans to go full steam ahead with plans for nuclear energy production; plans that had been on the back burner in the last two years of the UPA regime, especially after local protests over the projects in Kudankulam and Jaitapur.

The strategic dialogue with U.S. secretary of state John Kerry next week is expected to work on ironing out differences with Washington even as meetings with visiting Russian Deputy prime minister and French Foreign Minister addressed the issues of suppliers liability. But the government isn’t stopping there.

Sources tell The Hindu that Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s plans to visit India for a two day trip in September is centred around the Australian agreement to sell uranium to India. An Australian government delegation was in Delhi July 20 to tie up his programme. Mr. Modi will also visit Australia for the G-20 summit in November this year.

Meanwhile, Indian and Japanese officials are working on the possibility of announcing a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement when Mr. Modi travels to Tokyo for talks on September 1and 2 with Mr. Abe. With expectations high of the two leaders, who share a camaraderie, fast-tracking negotiations, local Japanese papers have been urging Mr. Abe to obtain a commitment from India on signing the NPT and fissile material cut-offs first. Although that is unlikely to happen, India will certainly be up against the ‘non-proliferation’ lobby in its quest to build up nuclear power as an alternate source of energy.

An even bigger stumbling block could be China, whose support for Pakistan’s nuclear programme makes it an unlikely backer for India’s pitch for NSG membership, and President Xi’s visit to India will be equally significant, as all 48 members of the NSG must approve India's membership.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 24 Jul 2014 13:13

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/k ... 242499.ece
Knowing India’s nuclear credentials
Samir Saran ...Abhijit Iyer-Mitra

The civil nuclear deal, hinged on one clear principle that India’s military programme would irrevocably be separated from the civilian one, was based on arriving at an outcome that would benefit all parties and enhance the global order. Picture shows the Jaitapur nuclear power project site. Photo: Vivek Bendre

nuclear policy
Manufactured Western outrage ignores the reality that under the landmark 2005 India-U.S. agreement, the IAEA has unprecedented access to Indian nuclear facilities

There has been a concerted attack on India from the usual suspects in recent days even as it was entering into negotiations to formally accede to the Nuclear Suppliers Group. As if on cue, Jane’s Intelligence Review carried out a “(non)-exposé” of an Indian military nuclear facility in Karnataka. As exposés go, it was lame even by Jane’s standards. The nature of the facility and location have been publicly available since 2010. Yet, this new “exposé” was carried by all mainstream print news outlets and predictably sensationalised with everyone feigning alarm and anxiety. This manufactured outrage culminated with a sanctimonious editorial in The New York Times that was remarkable for the sheer incoherence of its own arguments. As the designated chief of the non-proliferation ayatollahs (with blinkers) and representative of a motley anti-India group in the U.S. that is shrinking ever so rapidly, this too was on expected lines.

Assault on credentials

Nevertheless, it is important to dismantle the uneasy arguments of this concerted assault on India’s credentials. The first proposition that must be taken issue with is the propagation of a falsehood that Pakistan and its reckless build-up of nuclear stockpile is somehow driven by India’s posture. While Pakistan’s careless impulse may be a result of more than one central factor, it is important to understand that this may have a lot to do with its suspicion of American intentions. The oft-quoted argument is that Pakistan seeks to equalise the conventional mismatch with India through a misguided reliance on numbers of strategic and tactical warheads. The irrationality and illogic of this behaviour has been proven by the fact that a country like North Korea has deterred both the U.S. and South Korea with explosions that may not even have been nuclear. Pakistan’s vertical proliferation has no mooring to India’s strategic programme — only to its own paranoia. The question is what fuels this? There is no denying the fact that Pakistan was able to obtain “nuclear immunity” for its sub-conventional activities against India with even 10 warheads. It may well be the fear of the U.S. that motivates its build-up today.

New Delhi is already providing support to FMCT negotiation; its signature on the CTBT is linked to similar commitments by the U.S. and China

One motivator is the pressure the U.S. has been applying on Pakistan (without success due to the China factor) to sign onto the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT), which will forever cap the Pakistani arsenal. Contrary to what the commentary would have us believe, the FMCT, instead of curbing fissile material, has demonstrably accelerated Pakistan’s programme. So much for flawed logic. The second is the fear of the American “Plan B”, which involves the seizure and confiscation of much of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. The former has driven Pakistan to enrich their extant stockpile of radioactive material to weapons grade at breakneck speed. The latter has ensured that Pakistan is rapidly weaponising its fissile stock, in order to disperse and complicate any such weapons seizure plans. These facts are well understood in Washington policy circles. The exposés and op-eds of the past weeks are for most just another edition of Aesop’s fables.

The second issue has to be the demonstrated lack of understanding of the reality that shaped the landmark civil nuclear agreement between the U.S. and India. This nuclear deal was based on one clear principle — that India’s military programme would irrevocably be separated from the civilian programme. This was not an optimal solution for India or for the P5, but like all international agreements it was based on arriving at an outcome that would benefit all parties and enhance the global order. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohammed El Baradei in an op-ed in the Washington Post, specifically welcomed the deal without reservation, his rationale being “either we begin finding creative, outside-the-box solutions or the international nuclear safeguards regime will become obsolete.” This is now accepted wisdom. The IAEA has gained unprecedented access to India’s nuclear facilities. India has accepted additional protocols this June, and has strengthened its own export laws. Significantly, the same journals and reports confirm that India’s own arsenal has remained stable over the period with no increases despite the turbulence in the neighbourhood. The benefits of bringing India inside the ‘non-proliferation tent’ are therefore vast, visible and tangible.

While these editorials and reports may very well have got their facts and numbers right, the analysis is so convoluted that the facts they quote cease to be relevant. The argument goes that India needs to sign the FMCT, the CTBT, and agree to mutual weapons reduction with China and Pakistan, since it is the nuclear deal with the U.S. that has set the cat amongst the pigeons. Here then is some measure of reality. India is already providing active support to the FMCT negotiations — it is a work in progress, not yet a concrete treaty. It has been Pakistan that has been blocking the work at the conference on disarmaments negotiations.

Additionally, India’s signature on the CTBT is explicitly linked to a similar U.S. and Chinese commitment. As long as they do not ratify these two treaties, India has a voluntary unilateral moratorium on testing. What is holding up Indian accession is U.S. and Chinese accession.

Experts in Beijing claim that China’s expansion and modernisation of its nuclear forces is being driven by the ill-advised and deeply destabilising withdrawal of the U.S. from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty. This has nothing whatsoever to do with India.

India, therefore, is first being made the whipping boy for the failure of the American non-proliferation lobby in their own country and then it has to accept blame for the complex relations the U.S. shares with Pakistan and China that is driving these Asian allies to increase their arsenals. Can we get real, please?

(Samir Saran is vice-president and Abhijit Iyer-Mitra is programme coordinator at the Observer Research Foundation.)

Keywords: India-US bilateral relations, Indo-US nuclear deal, nuclear credentials, nuclear supplier groups

India should just go ahead and supply Vietnam and other pals just as China is supplying Pak. As long as Russia is prepared to adhere to India's N-Liability Bill,why should we stoop and crawl before Western suppliers? The development of our indigenous N-power capability based upon Dr,Bhaba's masterplan should be accelerated asap.

merlin · Post by **merlin** » 24 Jul 2014 13:34

The current Indian governments position is to sign away any Indian leverage in exchange of vague promises to let India join the NSG. No different from the UPA government.