xvi.3. Conclusion
- India is blessed with the rare, and very important, nuclear fuel of the future – Thorium. It cannot afford to lose the opportunity to emerge as the energy capital of the world, which coupled with the largest youth power, will be India’s answer to emerge as the leading economy of the world.
- In the immediate past, the world was dealing with a power and energy crisis. While the factors that caused this emergency differ from country to country, the upshot has been a clamour to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and increase the production of renewable energy.
- However, the current green energy paradigm needs some serious examination in terms of the 24×7 availability of these renewable resources.
- Notwithstanding that Nuclear Power may be the cheapest, greenest and safest source of energy currently known to man. Every time the word “nuclear” is uttered, it gets a negative and often hysterical response rather than a reasoned fact-based one.
- In the Indian context, nuclear, despite being a cleaner fuel, remains outside the priority list of power sources in India; India contributes only 1.72% of global nuclear-installed capacity.
- The global energy crisis should spur a rational relook at an energy source as clear as nuclear which is needlessly seen as a hot potato.
- We must make the right choices between various low-carbon technologies, all of which have some social and environmental impact.
- To meet rising energy demands, nuclear power is one of the better solutions. Considering lower capacity utilisation of renewables, rising fossil fuel prices and ever-soaring pollution problems, the potential of nuclear power must be fully exploited.
