India has a strong nuclear policy. Our country wants to go big on nuclear energy, build new big reactors for the sake of generating electricity. Its a good thing in one way.

We in India definitely cannot afford to have a standard of living like people in USA. A person in USA consumes about 27 barrels of oil an year, whereas we in India consume only one. If we consumed 27 barrels of oil like the Americans, the worlds oil output must at least be doubled. That’s quiet improbable in near future. The cost it has on environmental degradation will be extremely enormous.

We need a non carbon source of energy. The only good option seems to be nuclear. But nuclear fuel Uranium is quiet less in India. In fact its very less. USA would like to bully us before granting us the freedom to get supplies from the Nuclear Suppliers Group and many countries frankly don’t want us to master nuclear energy.

The only way out for us is to slowly but surely go and reach the thorium cycle. We have so much thorium, that once we reach it our nuclear fuel supply will be enormous.

America wants us to go nuclear on power generation because their companies will profit enormously from deals with India. Having a congress puppet government in India has made it really easy for them to achieve their dream.

There is no wrong in India mastering nuclear technology, but in a corrupt nation like us what will be cost people must pay for nuclear disaster? We have seen Fukushima Japan where out of improbable, nuclear vessels exploded and people suffered too much. If it happens in India, I am sure that people who are affected by it will only get peanuts as compensation.

Our politicians and bureaucracy is really corrupt. They will accept money from failing multinationals and let them escape without paying compensation to those who are affected by nuke disaster. I am quiet afraid, if things go wrong there will be another Bhopal where justice is still not served and India has let loose the criminals bowing to U.S pressure.

There is another good way. We must learn to use the solar energy available to us effectively. There is lot of Sun for us fortunately (and most families in India prefer son over daughter 🙂 ). We must encourage basic research to convert solar to electricity.

Even if a technology  gives us a modest efficiency of 30%+ we must use it. We can construct huge solar towers in wastelands available to us. If possible deploy solar ships on sea that take in sunlight, convert it into electrical energy and cable it to land. We can use array of ships on the ocean masses available to us.

We can design small units to harness store solar energy and sell it to homes so that we have a distributed power supply system that can cope in case of power shortages and even roof tops of civilian house can be used for power generation.

I am not against nuclear energy. Its a excellent technology and enlightening to minds who want to master it. But what I am afraid of is a nuclear disaster in a corrupt land where the criminals can walk free.