Last push to Indo-US nuclear deal

Prime Minister of India is seeking Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi’s intervention to give a last push to the Indo-US nuclear deal in the face of Left parties stiff criticism. Left parties have decided to oppose any steps to operationalize the deal. The talks, on the deal with the Left parties are now rescheduled to June 25, 2008.

Though the deal is yet to be ratified by the US congress, the US government is still very keen in going for the deal and says: “India needs to make some tough choices”.

On it’s part, the US could have done much more than just putting the ball in India’s court. The US should take the India’s IAEA safeguards accord in its final form and prevail upon the NSG cartel to exempt India from the applicable conditions. The way US managed its other friendly non-NPT nation like Israel, the US should get the Congress approval (in-spite of Hyde Act stipulations), may be with some manageable or adjustable conditions, and present the final deal to the Indian government. It should be remembered that the deal is also going to aid US commercial interests in a big way.

Under such situations, may be, the Indian government be able to get consensus with the other political partners and may even risk the withdrawal of support from some parties and go for the deal. The condition should be: To acquire the same benefits and advantages as other leading countries with advance nuclear technology.

On Indian part, for any near-term enhancement in nuclear power contribution, India needs uranium from the NSG countries. If the deal is not coming through, it will be a big loss for India in its huge investments in the nuclear power plants and a bigger loss for Nuclear Power in general (IAEA to take note), since India has very ambitious nuclear power programs in the future.

Finland’s "nuclear" Pride

World’s largest nuclear reactor is built on Finland’s western coast with an Indian designed turbine hall. As reported in TOI, this is the third reactor in Finland and going to produce 1,600 MW of electricity, when completed by 2011. The reactor will add to the nuclear power component of Finland’s available energy supply to 38% by 2020.

The site has become a tourist attraction which shows how safety of the 6,000 residents in the vicinity is ensured through design. Over 20,000 tourists are visiting the site every year. The public acceptance is ensured by crash-proof structure to negate any fear from terrorist activities and planned safe disposal of radioactive waste in deep stable 3-billion year-old bedrock.

The country has shown to the world as to how to answer the rising oil prices and how to meet increasing energy requirements without polluting the environment. The built-in safety features in the Finnish model is the answer to all the controversies with respect to the safety of the waste disposal and the public perception or belief of presence of enhanced radiation levels at nuclear reactor sites.

Uranium resources can last for another 100 years!

Nuclear power becomes a more relevant option in view of the potential of other cheaper options for greenhouse gas emissions. A new report (Uranium-2007) released recently finds that new discoveries and re-evaluations of known conventional uranium resources will be adequate to supply nuclear energy needs for at least 100 years at the present consumption level. Growing demand for nuclear power in developing countries such as India, China, Korea, Japan and the Russian Federation, and higher prices have spurred greater investment in exploration, and led to larger identified conventional uranium resources over the past two years. Projections for 2030 indicate a range of expected growth in demand from a low estimate of 38% to a high case of roughly 78%!

As per the estimate reported, the identified amount of conventional uranium resources which can be mined for less than US$130/kg to be about 5.5 million tonnes, up from the 4.7 million tonnes reported in 2005. Undiscovered resources, i.e. uranium deposits that can be expected to be found based on the geological characteristics of already discovered resources, have also risen to 10.5 million tonnes. The increases are due to both new discoveries and re-evaluations of known resources.

In contrast to some other energy resources such as oil, the geographical distribution of uranium resources remain quite varied. Currently, uranium is mined in 20 countries, with Iran being the latest entrant. Canada and Australia currently account for 44% of global uranium production, and other top uranium producers are Kazakhstan (13%), Niger (9%), Russian Federation (8%), Namibia (8%), Uzbekistan (6%), and the United States (5%).