amidst the little cool down in the 'nuclear war' between congress and the not-so-left left parties, one thing is a sure casualty. facts. facts backed by truth, due diligence, past experience, ground reality, etc.

no wonder our finance minister turned politician turned prime minister harps on the nuclear deal with america as the 'mantra' for 'new india'.

he has listed several reasons why india should go nuclear full steam ahead in spite of america throttled back on any new nuclear power plants for past 30 years.

some of his reasons are,

the foremost being that it could enable the country to double its modest target of nuclear power to 40,000 MWe by 2020.
please check the point from b.s.raghavan article. this 40,000 mw is a utopian dream as utopian as india building the next f-16!!!!

“This will signal the end of our international isolation of the past few decades. India is now too important a country to remain outside the international mainstream in this critical area,” he said here.
india's isolation especially in nuclear field was mainly in part due to the 98 pokhran tests. further with russia and america being nuclear powerhouses who closely guard their nuclear skill sets, it will be a huge dream that they will transfer these skills to india so that india can become nuclear 'mainstream'

We do not enjoy the luxury of an either/or choice. India needs energy from all known and likely sources of energy.”
absolutely. india needs more energy. but this energy debate has become 'more and more energy' rather than sustainable energy, renewable energy, improving the cleanliess and efficiency of our coal power plants, improving on the massive t&d losses, making mandatory green building concepts, making provisions for climate change in each and every project work in india that can have an impact. instead of all this india's elite seems that nuclear nirvana is the best of them all. for seldom they realise that nuclear nirvana for upper rich class of india is nuclear disasters for tens of lakhs of coastal people where these nuclear power plants will in all likelihood be located.

The energy generated had to be affordable “not only in terms of its financial cost but also in terms of the cost to our environment.”
ha....here is the biggest joke. please see pointer from b.s.raghavan article. nuclear power will be the most expensive per mega watt cost of producing electricity and nuclear power is so outcast that no community in america is willing to accept new nuclear plants so bad that there is not even a single new nuclear plant built in past 30 years although our iraqi war zero president bush is trying to change this.

Nuclear power was recognised as an important and environmentally benign constituent of the overall energy mix.
who told so. american communities or american nuclear industry? did we check with people of koodamkulam who are opposing (and in process getting crushed). did we check with people of tadadi, udupi, cuddalore who are opposing even coal power plants for pollution fears.

“There is today a talk the world over of a nuclear renaissance and we cannot afford to miss the bus or lag behind these global developments.”
i have not heard the talk. american communities have not heard the talk. several european countries have not heard the talk. i don't know where this talk comes from. perhaps from p.chidamabaran and montek singh ahuwalia who want gdp growth at all costs.

columnist b.s.raghavan of hindu in a small but powerful article explodes the myth of nuclear india. from his words,
Going by the track record of Atomic Energy Department and the Nuclear Power Corporation, there is absolutely no chance of having on the ground 40,000 MWs by 2020 as fondly hoped for by the Prime Minister.

In fact, expert estimates have never assumed more than 20,000 MWs in the next two decades. By that time the total installed capacity from all sources of power might be around 250,000 MWs (or doube what it is today), of which the percentage of nuclear power might come barely to 10 per cent or less.

Taking into account transportation costs, the installation fee, maintenance and service charges, and the like, as on date, a megawatt of nuclear power takes a minimum of Rs 10 crore to build, and allowing for inflation and rise in administrative and material costs, it may well exceed Rs 15 crore by 2020. Which means that in order to build 20,000 MWs India needs to allocate Rs 300,000 crore, at the rate of Rs 15,000 crore per year, for the next 20 years.Even if the private sector gears itself to supplement the Government’s effort (a big ‘if’ considering the evidence of the interest shown so far), mobilisation on such a massive scale is extremely problematic.

let everybody be honest and do the due diligence correctly, openly and truthfully on the nuclear deal from all angles namely environment, finance, coastal community impact, security, etc. it will be all to clear that this deal is a fake deal which will only benefit the nuclear industry, nuclear lobbyists and their cohorts. if the energy that has been put on the nuclear deal had been put on several sustainable parameters outlined in this article, india's energy situation will be much better off rather than the utopian illusions.