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7 Nuclear Energy and the Challenge of Development in India
Pages 117-128

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From page 117...
...  Given this demand, India has chosen to pursue nuclear energy as a source of energy, and is planning a rapid expansion of the nuclear pow er sector in the coming decades.  Green scenarios (solar, nuclear, or a combination)
From page 118...
...  The need for nuclear energy as a component of the overall energy future is uncertain and could be jointly studied. India faces many acute challenges of energy development, which has caused the country's leaders to consider India's indigenous energy sources and how it can increase energy supply to better meet the exponentially expanding energy demand.
From page 119...
... FIGURE 7-1 Human Develop pment Index and the Per Capita Electricity y Consumption. SOU URCE: Kakodkhar, 20012.
From page 120...
... Table 7-1 indicates the population, annual electricity generation, and annual carbon dioxide emissions for OECD and non-OECD countries. For the per capita kWh usage to increase to 5,000, corresponding to the capacity use attained by industrialized nations, generation of something like 20 trillion kWh would be required.
From page 121...
... When considering the spectrum of green energy sources, inevitably there will be a minimum contribution from nuclear energy if one wants to meet energy requirements. Next, we must calculate how much uranium would be required to meet a scenario of nuclear power as part of the overall energy supply.
From page 122...
... This is why disposal of spent fuel remains an unresolved issue and the only way to handle this issue, Kakodkar stated, is to recycle by removing the uranium and plutonium using technologies currently available. There are, of course, some residual issues in terms of byproducts (actinides, long-life fission products)
From page 123...
... A thorium reactor designed in India, the Advanced Heavy Water Reactors (AHWR) , would use 20 percent uranium enriched for 20 percent of the fuel mixed with thorium (80 percent of the fuel)
From page 124...
... A comparable amount of energy is gained from the uranium used in pressurized heavy water reactors and light water reactors, but there are fewer proliferation concerns with thorium reactors. With thermal reactors, nuclear energy can increase with reduced risk in a variety of new regions in the world.
From page 125...
... is again considering nuclear energy because the North Sea resources have been exhausted. Uranium is not an infinite source of energy and the fact still remains that although oil is better than coal and gas is better than oil, the earth's carrying capacity for greenhouse gas emissions increase daily.
From page 126...
... A workshop participant asked Kakodkar about his view of solar energy potential. He replied that in India, if one takes the barren uncultivable land and diverts only 25 percent of it to solar energy, enough energy will be collected to fuel the entire country's energy requirements.
From page 127...
... Another workshop participant noted that in his presentation, Kakodkar addressed nuclear safety and climate change as two different risks, but the examples of the accident in Fukushima, Super Storm Sandy, or the incident at a nuclear plant in the United States, indicate that more dependence on nuclear energy actually makes the risks from climate change more severe. Moving away from the nuclear energy makes the handling of climate change easier.


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