Philip wrote:I still haven't had an answer to my basic point put forward.Where is the official "white paper" put out regarding our energy policy and future generation of power through nuclear,hydel,coal,gas,renewable energy,etc.The growth/consumption expected in the future,the costs per unit of power from each of these options,the environmental aspects of each,etc.Plus,the future potential of generating more power from each option,which might escalate for certain options due to various factors (nuclear plants,spent fuel storage,clean-up costs, etc.).We must first adopt a holistic approach to the problem of power generation,before deciding to go whole hog with questionable TOT of the nuclear option.
One presumes that a certain figure has been reached for nuclear power generation by the experts.Has this been seriously debated in the country by all our energy experts?This whole deal is based upon India's "peaceful" uses of nuclear fuel and technology,not militarily.I haven't seen anywhere in the current parliamentary debate a comparison with other options.Surely,other state-of-art technology is availablefor the other options too,which are less controversial.We have massive coal reserves.Canada today is exploiting its oil and gas wealth,despite the high coistof doing so because of the higher prices today which make it worthwhile.We can do the same with our coal.
The danger in this deal is that we put on the line for civilian use our strategic deterrent and its future capability,and allow the thin end of the wedge for the nuclear hypocrasies to penetrate into our secret nuclear environment,hitherto off limits to them.This is achieved through the US's Jekyll-&-Hyde act,well demonstrated by the latest Foggy Bottom statements about any future testing by India.We havegone it alone so far with regard to our military programmea and need not compromise any future option.Ifsomeof our scientists are also working on military aspects,we will be open to future charges at an opportune time for the US to sabotage the deal.Is it possible for India to have two completely different nuclear institutions,one military and the other civilian?Can we afford duplicating our scientific human resources and al facilities too?It is going to be a very extensive and expensive task,that will still be subject to US interference60 yeras after independence,after achieving so much,we now want "dependence" in our nuclear industry!
Very relevant and very much true question, but perhaps very late too !?