{"id":263971,"date":"2023-10-12T19:21:10","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T13:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=263971"},"modified":"2023-10-12T19:21:10","modified_gmt":"2023-10-12T13:51:10","slug":"india-needs-to-go-nuclear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/india-needs-to-go-nuclear\/","title":{"rendered":"India needs to go nuclear"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source: <\/strong>This post has been created based on the article \u201cIndia needs to go nuclear\u201d<\/strong> published in The Indian Express <\/strong>on 12th<\/sup> October 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 3 Indian Economy \u2014 Infrastructure: Energy, <\/strong>Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways, etc.<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>:\u00a0This article discusses the need for an expansion of nuclear energy in emerging economies, especially India and proposes a strategy for the same. It highlights the importance of nuclear energy in tackling the issues of rising energy demand and tackling climate change.<\/p>\n

Economic growth leads to a greater demand for energy. Since India\u2019s economy is growing rapidly, there will be a significant growth in our energy consumption which is already the 3rd<\/sup>-highest globally.<\/p>\n

What is the need for clean nuclear energy?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

1) Rising Energy Demand: <\/strong>The total clean energy requirement to support a developed India would work out to around more than 4 times our present energy consumption<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

2) Impact on Climate:<\/strong> Most of this energy consumption will be based on fossil energy<\/strong>, which is a major contributor to global warming. Considering this, there is now a global consensus to reach net-zero before a 2045-2070 time frame.<\/p>\n

Failure to tackle this dual challenge would mean either compromising on development<\/strong> or failing to realise the net-zero target<\/strong> or both.<\/p>\n

One of the most important solutions is a rapid scale-up of nuclear energy<\/strong>. It is the cleanest and safest of energies<\/strong>, with negligible waste<\/strong> due to a closed nuclear fuel cycle.<\/p>\n

Based on a study by Vivekananda International Foundation<\/strong> and IIT-Bombay<\/strong>, a developed India would need 2000 GW nuclear energy<\/strong> to reach net-zero.<\/p>\n

However, there is a major implementation challenge, as well as lack of determination and requisite policy\/management framework.<\/p>\n

What strategy should be followed to rapidly scale up nuclear energy?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Firstly<\/strong>, more projects of the indigenous<\/strong> Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR)<\/strong> should be implemented leveraging multiple PSUs in addition to NPCIL.<\/p>\n

Secondly<\/strong>, indigenous Small Modular Reactors (SMRs)<\/strong> should be built at sites that would be vacated by retiring coal plants.<\/p>\n

Thirdly<\/strong>, smaller PHWR units can be offered as partially-owned captive units for energy-intensive industries such as metals, chemicals, and fertilizers.<\/p>\n

Fourthly<\/strong>, reactors for direct hydrogen production without electrolysis should be developed for cheaper green hydrogen.<\/p>\n

Fifthly<\/strong>, 2nd<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup> stage nuclear-power programme should be sped up to utilize India\u2019s Thorium<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Finally<\/strong>, emerging-economy countries should see rapid deployment of new nuclear-energy capacity to credibly address climate-change.<\/p>\n

What should be done?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

India\u2019s PHWRs are globally competitive both in terms of performance and capital cost<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Focus on Thorium: Thorium fuel in PHWR<\/strong> can make these reactors even more attractive in terms of economics, safety, waste management and proliferation resistance.<\/p>\n

International Cooperation: <\/strong>India should pilot international co-operation<\/strong> for global efforts to address the challenges.<\/p>\n

Policy Support:<\/strong> It should be guided by bold policy support<\/strong> that provides a level-playing field<\/strong> for nuclear energy on par with renewable energy.<\/p>\n

Emerging-economy countries, where one expects maximum net growth in energy consumption, should see rapid deployment of new nuclear-energy capacity to address climate-change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: This post has been created based on the article \u201cIndia needs to go nuclear\u201d published in The Indian Express on 12th October 2023. UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 3 Indian Economy \u2014 Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways, etc. News:\u00a0This article discusses the need for an expansion of nuclear energy in emerging economies, especially… Continue reading India needs to go nuclear<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,8184,10500],"class_list":["post-263971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-indian-economy","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":19,"cached_at":1698366518,"cached_date":1698468423},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}