Punjab News N-energy answer to power crisis, says top scientist

Lily

B.R
Staff member
Ropar May 4:

The nuclear disaster at Fukoshima in Japan should not stop us from going ahead with the Jaitapur nuclear plant. It means that our nuclear reactors should not only be quake- resistant, but be able to tolerate a tsunami too, Principal Scientific Adviser to Prime Minister Dr Rajagopala

Chidambaram said here today. He was addressing faculty members, students and NGOs during the inauguration of the Rural Technology Action Group (RuTAG) centre at the IIT-Ropar. Nuclear scientist Dr Chidambaram said for countries like India, the human development index was calculated in three contexts, with power consumed per person being one of the major factors.

“We currently need six to seven times more energy per person for more development. Renewable sources of energy, such as solar energy, is intermittent while we are already tapping hydel resources and wind energy too is incapable of meeting our ever-expanding requirements,” he said. Chidambaram, who played a key role in the first nuclear test at Pokaran in 1974, said that nuclear energy was the answer to power crisis. “The 21st century’s two major concerns are climate change and energy security. We can secure the energy sector by utilising nuclear energy,” he added.

Talking about the RuTAG centre, he said India had six such centres at the IITs in Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Assam, West Bengal, Delhi and Mumbai. Ropar was the seventh IIT to have the centre. The Director, IIT-Ropar, MK Surappa, said: “Through non-government organisations and the state government, the centre will work for developing simple technologies and improvising existing ones in order to make work easier for people in the rural sector.” He said work could be done on providing potable drinking water to rural areas as water in several pockets of Punjab was saline because of excessive use of fertilisers.

 
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