R. Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Union government, has said that all concerns pertaining to the Kudankulam nuclear project have been addressed.
At a press conference at Amritapuri, near here, on Monday, Dr. Chidambaram said people should understand how safe the reactor was.
He said the safety system that had been built into the Kudankulam reactor was very advanced.
Tried and tested
There were 16 such reactors in operation in Russia and nine in operation outside Russia, he said.
“This is a kind of reactor that has very advanced security features,” he said.
Dr. Chidambaram said the human development index depended very strongly on per capita electricity consumption. If India had to become a developed country, two things needed to be done, he said.
One was to become nearly 100 per cent literate without gender discrimination, and the other was that the per capita electricity consumption should go up six to eight times.
There was not enough fossil fuel in the world to achieve such a high power consumption, he said.
All other sources of energy were important.
“We must use hydel power to the maximum and must go for renewable energy. After having done all that, nuclear becomes inevitable. China is extremely fast with its nuclear programmes.”
High demand
He said India and China were the only two countries in the world with very high energy demand.
India was one of the few countries in the world that had comprehensive capabilities in the field.
“We are a developed country in the nuclear sector,” Dr. Chidambaram said.
