The Hindu : National : Our motto is self-reliance: AEC chief

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Our motto is self-reliance: AEC chief

Special Correspondent

“India is planning to build more powerful versions of accelerators with reactors”

Anil Kakodkar

CHENNAI: “Self-reliance is the motto of our work, which has to be nurtured, sustained and strengthened in our march towards the realisation of the second and third stages of India’s nuclear power programme,” Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, said on Tuesday. In the first stage, India built indigenous PHWRs. In the second stage, it would build a series of Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs). In the third stage, thorium-fuelled reactors would come up.

Dr. Kakodkar, who delivered the presidential address at the graduation function of the one-year Orientation Course for Engineering and Science Graduates (OCES) started by the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) Training School at Kalpakkam, said that in addition to these three stages, India was planning to build more powerful versions of accelerators with reactors. Besides, “We are talking of reactors that will not only generate electricity but also hydrogen.”

Welcoming the graduates of the IGCAR Training School into the DAE family, he said the IGCAR had a huge programme ahead of it in building FBRs. The mature nuclear programme built by the DAE resulted from its indigenous research and development. The sum total of these efforts was that India today had a commercial programme for generation of nuclear electricity, for nuclear fuel cycle right from mining of natural uranium, for production of heavy water, for manufacture of electronic items and instrumentation, and so on.

“Whatever investment was made in this commercial programme is returning a dividend of Rs.400 crores to Rs.500 crores every year. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited has the financial strength to construct a 1,000 MWe unit every year on its own financial strength,” Dr. Kakodkar said.

Prof. J.B. Joshi, Director, University Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, who was the chief guest, wanted young engineers and scientists to be self-motivated. They should demonstrate patience and perseverance in research. Dr. Joshi regretted that the turnover of ayurvedic products in India, where this science was born, formed less than one per cent of the world turnover in 2000. For the same year, if the world turnover in food processing and preservation was Rs.22,50,000 crores, India’s contribution was a mere Rs.5,600 crores. Prof. Joshi presented awards to Ankur Kaushik and Sukant Kothari for their excellent performance in the Training School.

Baldev Raj, Director, IGCAR, said this first batch of 20 young engineers, who had undergone training at IGCAR for one year, would get their degree in Master of Technology from the Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, a deemed university coming under the DAE, after they completed one more year of project work.

The course provided them with a holistic academic programme. The course for the second batch had started for 46 engineering graduates. In 2006, the training programme was begun in three disciplines, mechanical, electronics and instrumentation, and chemical engineering. Dr. Baldev Raj said that in 2007 two new courses in Nuclear Reactor Physics and Nuclear Fuel Cycle Chemistry were started.

Dr. M. Sai Baba, Head, IGCAR Training School, said the OCES was started to meet the demand for human resources in the science and technology of FBRs and the associated fuel cycle. After successful completion of the course, the trainees would join the DAE as scientific officers.

Dr. G. Venugopal Rao, Scientific Officer, Strategic and Human Resources Planning Section, IGCAR, said several academic institutions were behind the framing of the syllabus and running of the course.

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