Nuclear power is not only a safe and reliable option, but is environmental-friendly and an economically-viable source of electrical energy which can significantly reduce green house gases, said Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu here on Thursday.
“We have a commendable record of operating our nuclear reactors for over 40 years without any serious incident. With technological advancements, more safety features could be added and help the country meet the ever-increasing energy demand,” he said.
Mr. Naidu was addressing scientists and staff at the Department of Atomic Energy’s Atomic Minerals Division (AMD), which is celebrating its 70th year of exploration and research activities. The DAE, following the vision and leadership of Dr. Homi J. Bhabha, has reached great heights and taken giant leaps to attain self-reliance and self-sufficiency, he said.
The role of nuclear energy in the future would be significant considering the steep demand for power, hence the need to develop new and more efficient technologies to utilise resources to the maximum extent. Noting that the AMD has been carrying out aerial and ground surveys and subsurface drilling to augment resources, Mr. Naidu said it was heartening to know about availability of more than three lakh tonnes of uranium oxide reserves and around 1,200 million tonnes of beach sand mineral resources in India. Favourable geological domains spread across the length and breadth of the country do have the potential to host uranium and rare metals and REE deposits. The uranium resource augmentation from around one lakh tonnes in the first 60 years of AMD activities to around two lakh tonnes in the last 10 years was commendable, he said and hoped that the efforts to explore Kadapa basin spread over both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and Bhima basin in Karnataka would be fruitful as also in the search for rare metals like niobium, tantalum, lithium and beryllium.
