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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Replace land acquisition act for N-power progress: Atomic Energy Commission chairman MR Srinivasan

-PTI

 

India should move on to make nuclear energy as safe as possible by taking lessons from the recent Fukushima accident but its imperative to replace the old-era Land Acquisition Act with a more balanced one, to address the country's present huge infrastructure and energy needs, former Atomic Energy Commission Chairman M R Srinivasan said here.

Stating that the resettlement was equally significant in any infrastructure project, he said India's record of resettling project-affected people has been "pathetic".

Srinivasan, currently a member of AEC, was delivering the first Homi Sethna Memorial lecture on 'Future of Nuclear Power after Fukushima,' at the Nehru Centre here last evening.

He said non-pursuance of nuclear energy option by India would only increase its fossil fuel burning and carbon emissions and continuing dependence on hydro-carbon imports in a market of dwindling supply and rising prices.

"All lessons must be learnt from the Fukushima accident and we must move on to make nuclear energy as safe as humanly possible and to give up the nuclear power option now will make the task of growing our economy to be able to overcome poverty and under development, even more difficult," Srinivasan said.

On the proposed nuclear plant at Jaitapur, he said Maharashtra needs new generation capacity to meet its increasing demands from industry, agriculture and domestic sectors. He assured that would be no effluents which could affect the mango orchards or the fishing activity nearby.

"We have actual experience at Tarapur and Kalpakkam and at neither of these places has there been an adverse impact on marine life. Similarly Kakrapar and Kaiga, both in the Western Ghats have shown that the ecology of the area is unaffected. The question of compensation for lands that are acquired is a matter that has to be decided by state government," he said.

But replacement of Land Acquisition Act of the British period is important, with a more balanced one that takes note of present conditions, if the Centre is serious about India's huge infrastructure projects which requires a lot of power, he added.

"Lots of land have been acquired by the government from poor people at very low compensation and to make matters worse the money is not paid promptly. India's record of resettling project affected people has been pathetic. In some coal mining projects, the same group of people have been uprooted more than once," he said.

In recent times, the value of land is escalating so fast that a fair compensation given a year or two ago appears thoroughly inadequate later. But all these matters can be resolved if our decision making elite put their heads together. We have too much of opposition for opposition sake. We run the risk of being a self cancelling society where we cannot take a decision that will break the stalemate, Srinivasan added.

"How can we eliminate the poverty and deprivation in the country if we dont create wealth through economic development? Do we not require cement, steel, aluminum and other materials for building up our infrastructure?," he asked.

In the decades to come, petroleum will either be too expensive or simply not available. The transport system will have to be more dependent on electricity or on hydrogen produced by using fossil fuel or electricity. "While we may fully support wind and solar options, they simply will be inadequate or uneconomic compared to nuclear power," he said.

"It is sad that sometimes our environmental activists consider all of us involved in industrial activities as 'anti-national people' and confer on themselves all patriotism. As a person who has spent some five and a half decades in developing nuclear power under difficult conditions I consider this value judgment of our environmental activists completely unacceptable," Srinivasan said.

Earlier we used to celebrate when a cement or a fertiliser or a power plant is completed but we are now seeing a sense of 'triumphalism' amongst our activists, whenever a project is stopped or abandoned, he said.

"Our electricity generating capacity has been growing over the years, mostly coal based and hydro, with some contribution from gas and small contributions from nuclear and wind. India and China both had an installed capacity of about 2000 MW in 1950. India is struggling to reach 200,000 MW and China has already surpassed 800,000 MW and developed huge enviable infrastructures," he said.

In recent years, China was adding one 1000 MW coal burning unit every week.

"But if we have to cut down carbon emissions, to mitigate global warming, we must begin to build a significant nuclear capacity, which can generate economic base load electricity.

Of course we must also develop hydro electric power available in the North East and elsewhere, consistent with protection of the ecology and addressing the rehabilitation and resettlement issues in a humane manner. While some amount of gas based power will be built, it is going to be expensive, as its price is indexed to petroleum," Srinivasan said.

Some studies of energy needs of India by 2052 show that the electricity requirement may be about 1300 GW. This could be made up of 40 per cent coal based, using clean coal technologies, 40 per cent nuclear and 20 renewable.

At present France is producing 75-80 per cent of its electricity from nuclear plants. In Korea it is 40 per cent. Japan has 30 per cent from nuclear though what it will be in future in the context of Fukushima is uncertain, he added.