Prologue to civil nuclear co-operation

The burgeoning energy demands for India cannot be hided. At present the Indian economy is growing at the rate of 7-8% and everyone is wishing her to reach 10%. If we need to reach such a value then it is not possible without having an un-interrupted power supply. Power supply is very much important to develop manufacturing based industries.

The demand of energy is going to increase in an exponential way. To satisfy the needs of the Indian population in near future, Indian power sector needs to be improved. Presently in India the source of power is through thermal, hydro and nuclear power plants and a meagre amount through non conventional energy resources like solar and wind energy. But it is sure that to satisfy the needs a highly efficient energy resource is needed. One such option is to go for nuclear energy supply. It is for this reason the Indian government is pushing for the civil nuclear co-operation with US.

To understand and to comment on the pros and cons of the nuclear deal we need to have an overview on the present nuclear status of India and the nuclear cycle. The nuclear energy is generated by a fission process either from Thorium or Uranium-238 (both found commonly in nature). These natural nuclear material produces fissile material after neutron bombardment and generates radioactive nuclear material (such as plutonium-239 or uranium-235). Such radio-active material is called as enriched nuclear material and the process of obtaining radioactive nuclear material is called as nuclear enrichment. The plutonium-239 or uranium-235 further undergoes nuclear fission by neutron bombardment and in the process generates energy. So in conclusion, to generate nuclear energy a base material is needed which is either Uranium-238 or thorium. These two radio-active materials are found abundantly on earth surface.

In India there is a abundance of thorium material and hence India has developed indigenous thorium based nuclear reactors. But since the production cost using uranium-238 is cheaper in comparison to thorium based reactors, the latter has not become economically attractive. (Nevertheless Indian government is rigorously pushing for it)

Hence from an economic standpoint the uranium-238 based reactors is better in comparison to thorium based reactors. But on contrary India has very less reserves of uranium-238 therefore importing uranium-238 has become a necessity. Since India has developed nuclear weapons and not signed non-proliferation treaty, it is not possible for her to obtain Uranium-238 from Nuclear supplier groups.

To overcome this problem, India is waiting for a long time to come to an agreement with U.S for the supply of nuclear raw material and at the same time without jeopardizing its strategic balance in the region.

The present civil nuclear co-operation objective is to enable export of nuclear raw material and its associated technical information for the production of energy. And thereby come out of an international isolation against India and in a long run making the world to accept her as a responsible nuclear power.

(In this I have not mentioned on the different types of nuclear reactors nevertheless it is also important to know these details. India boasts itself of developing Fast Breeder Reactors (FBR) and another famous reactors which is predominantly found is Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR). Though I don't have much details on both, I was informed that FBR is slightly more dangerous in comparison to PWHR. Hence the maintenance of FBR is comparatively costlier,thereby making it un-attractive)