|
|
|
|
Nuclear power for the
good
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - In the thick of global
geopolitics, "nuclear" has turned into something
of a dirty word, with the most obvious connotation
being weapons of mass destruction. However,
sometimes it is forgotten that nuclear energy can
indeed be harnessed for the betterment of mankind.
In a strong signal that India has emerged
as a nation capable of delivering on nuclear-power
technology, the country's largest and totally
indigenously built reactor of 540 megawatts'
capacity at Tarapur reached criticality this week,
which means it can generate electricity soon.
Tarapur Atomic Power Project No 4 (TAPP-4)
marks the first time a reactor of such dimensions
has been built in the country, highlighting
India's indigenous capability to harness nuclear
power (enrich natural uranium on one's own) in the
face of sanctions due to India's non-adherence to
the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) signed
in 1968. India, a nuclear-weapons state, has not
signed the NPT as it feels it discriminates
between the nuclear haves and the have-nots, with
no obligation on adherents of the NPT to rein in
their nuclear programs.
India turned into
a full-fledged nuclear-weapons state in 1998 in
the face of security threats from Pakistan and
China, just as North Korea stockpiled nuclear
weapons because of US nuclear warheads in South
Korea and Iran has been under severe pressure to
develop nuclear weapons because of fears of
Israel. Indeed, TAPP-4 brings into focus once more
that something drastic needs to be done to change
the international nuclear regime governed by the
NPT, given the growing list of defaulters as well
as the need to arrive at an arrangement wherein
nuclear energy for peace is not seen as a
corollary but in exclusion of weapons piling.
TAPP-4 is also a reminder to the rest of
the world about India's insistence that it is
serious about harnessing nuclear energy for
peaceful purposes, despite accusations of dubious
intentions and not bowing to pressures to sign the
NPT. Anil Kakodkar, chairman of India's Atomic
Energy Commission, called the initiation of TAPP-4
"a momentous occasion" and said it had come about
despite the dual technology denial that regimes
imposed on India and is a reminder of India's
enormous technical and scientific manpower.
Need for nuclear energy
TAPP-4
is not only the largest nuclear power reactor ever
to be built in India but it is the largest power
unit of any type in the country now. Tarapur now
boasts of four reactors - the first two reactors
of 210MW capacity each were built in the late
1960s by General Electric, a US company. Kakodkar
said that the fourth reactor had been built seven
months ahead of schedule and at a cost much lower
than envisaged. TAPP-3 and 4 are situated on the
shore of the Arabian Sea at Tarapur in the Thane
district of Maharashtra. Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh has said the development is an
"important step in our quest to attain energy
security through the use of nuclear power for
peaceful purposes".
India has an active
and largely indigenous nuclear-power program and
expects to have a 20,000MW nuclear capacity by
2020. With this addition of 540MW into the Western
Grid, the total nuclear power generated in the
country will be 3,310MW, compared with Pakistan's
modest nuclear power program with 425MW of
capacity - though China as imagined is way ahead.
Both India and Pakistan use indigenous uranium as
they are outside the NPT and hence excluded from
trade in nuclear plants or materials, which has
hampered their development of civil nuclear
energy.
It may be noted that the bulk of
nuclear power plants are being built in Asia, with
China and India pursuing ambitious plans, and
estimates suggesting that China is aiming for a
total of 30 plants in 15 years. These moves
contrast sharply with the fact that nuclear power
is not the preferred source of energy in the
Western world, with most reactors having been set
up in the 1970s and 1980s and only three new
reactors commissioned between 1998 and 2003.
Though the United States operates 104 plants,
nearly a quarter of the global total of 442, it
has not issued a new building permit for more than
two decades since the 1979 accident at Three Mile
Island, Pennsylvania. The story is similar in
Western Europe, where the 1986 Chernobyl disaster
engendered fear, and only one new plant is now
being built, while several countries are phasing
out nuclear power or rejecting it altogether.
Yet 16% of the world's electricity stems
from nuclear power, with most increases due to
better performances by existing units. Seventeen
countries depend on nuclear power for at least a
quarter of their electricity. France and Lithuania
get about three-quarters of their power from
nuclear energy, while Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary,
Slovakia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland,
Slovenia and Ukraine get one-third or more. Japan,
Germany and Finland get more than a quarter of
their power from nuclear energy, while the US gets
one-fifth. The most persuasive arguments in favor
of nuclear energy are sustainability in the face
of the depletion of fossil fuel as well as lower
pollution. However, the biggest fear that has
deterred advanced nations in making rapid strides
has been the issue of safety.
A change
in the nuclear regime
Nuclear energy for
peaceful purposes can never be studied
independently of the concomitant fear of it
turning dangerous, as has happened in Iran. The
success of TAPP-4 ironically is also a reminder
that if a nation chooses to follow a nuclear
program independently, it can do so, whether for
peaceful purposes or otherwise.
The
nuclear non-proliferation regime has been
stretched to the limits and it does not seem that
things are ever going to be the same again. The
strains came into focus after India and Pakistan
tested their nuclear devices in 1998, thereby
completely flouting the existing global nuclear
order.
The US-led global nuclear regime is
today struggling to deal with the fact that North
Korea has declared that it possesses nuclear
weapons while Iran is intent on moving in the same
direction. Intelligence reports suggest that there
is increased cooperation among "rogue" states,
with Iran-North Korea forming a cartel of support
for each other, with the possible complicity of
states such as Pakistan, which peddled nuclear
technology around the world. Incidentally, North
Korea (the country has since walked out), Iran and
Iraq signed the NPT, making them eligible to
procure nuclear technology for peaceful purposes
from other signatories that possessed weapons such
as the US, the United Kingdom and France.
Though the US has time and again made it
apparent that it would not tolerate either Iran or
North Korea possessing nuclear weapons, it does
not have a clear strategy to deal with either. It
is important to set a precedent as there is danger
that other states such as Syria, Saudi Arabia,
Egypt, Taiwan, Japan and Brazil may be tempted to
go nuclear. Moreover, with nations willing to
trade their nuclear and missile technologies in
the global black market, there is a real
possibility of these technologies falling into
wrong hands.
This makes the NPT a patently
flawed document, with India highlighting the fact
that the regime was inequitable to begin with as
it gave the right to possess and pile nuclear
weapons to only a few countries, which can work
against the national interests of other nations.
As the nuclear regime crumbles and the world's
worst fears turn into reality, it becomes
imperative to emphasize that a radically new
global regime on nuclear proliferation has to be
worked out for a unified voice that favors the
harnessing of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes
and at the same time does not condone the lapses.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New
Delhi-based journalist.
(Copyright
2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing.) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
All material on this
website is copyright and may not be republished in any form without written
permission.
© Copyright 1999 - 2005 Asia Times
Online Ltd.
|
|
Head
Office: Rm 202, Hau Fook Mansion, No. 8 Hau Fook St., Kowloon, Hong
Kong
Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
|
Asian Sex Gazette South Asian Sex News
|
|
|
