It is rather amusing to see everyone from Condi Rice to her many generations removed predecessor Henry Kissinger, not to mention ignorant politicians, sundry bureaucrats and petty statesmen, trying to rush India into operationalising the so called nuclear deal.
The good Doctor, himself a bureaucrat of no mean standing, talks of not missing the bus. None of these worthies knows anything about the technology or the business they are pushing so vigorously.
The fact is that the last nuclear power plant was commissioned in the U.S. around decades ago. The famous bus, which takes off every day, has not had a paying passenger since 1973 when the last such project in the U.S. was initiated. This project has had all kinds of delays and will be commissioned only in 2012, maybe. Basically the market, which is the king in the U.S., has not found it prudent to fund any new projects since 1973 even though the country has a serious balance of energy problem.
This is not because there is a shortage of project proposals but because there are serious unaddressed concerns about waste disposal, costs and safety.
The waste disposal issue remains as far from a solution today as it was ten years ago. The capital and operating costs make sense only under extreme assumptions of assigning financial costs to non-financial aspects of fossil fuel based plants while ignoring all such issues of nuclear plants.
True some progress has been made during this period on the safety front. But even today, the best that can be said is that there has been no nuclear plant meltdown since the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island affairs.
On the other hand there can be no meltdown of a non-nuclear power plant . Surely it does not take a great mind to see the difference.
Having said all this, let me add that I would love to see nuclear power technology move from the wishful thinking stage to everything its proponents claim it to be so that India can really and truly become energy independent.
For now please let the Blueline bus, however attractive in theory, pass. It is lethal.
Next
The Undead Deal
First
The Nuclear Mess
The good Doctor, himself a bureaucrat of no mean standing, talks of not missing the bus. None of these worthies knows anything about the technology or the business they are pushing so vigorously.
The fact is that the last nuclear power plant was commissioned in the U.S. around decades ago. The famous bus, which takes off every day, has not had a paying passenger since 1973 when the last such project in the U.S. was initiated. This project has had all kinds of delays and will be commissioned only in 2012, maybe. Basically the market, which is the king in the U.S., has not found it prudent to fund any new projects since 1973 even though the country has a serious balance of energy problem.
This is not because there is a shortage of project proposals but because there are serious unaddressed concerns about waste disposal, costs and safety.
The waste disposal issue remains as far from a solution today as it was ten years ago. The capital and operating costs make sense only under extreme assumptions of assigning financial costs to non-financial aspects of fossil fuel based plants while ignoring all such issues of nuclear plants.
True some progress has been made during this period on the safety front. But even today, the best that can be said is that there has been no nuclear plant meltdown since the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island affairs.
On the other hand there can be no meltdown of a non-nuclear power plant . Surely it does not take a great mind to see the difference.
Having said all this, let me add that I would love to see nuclear power technology move from the wishful thinking stage to everything its proponents claim it to be so that India can really and truly become energy independent.
For now please let the Blueline bus, however attractive in theory, pass. It is lethal.
Next
The Undead Deal
First
The Nuclear Mess
