BENGALURU: With climate change posing a real threat, the need is to develop closed nuclear fuel cycle power plants to prepare for the future, R Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India, said on Friday.
The scientist was delivering the 26th Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Lecture on the occasion of Institute Day, at the Central Power Research Institute (CPRI) in the city.
Chidambaram said closed nuclear fuel cycle power plants reprocess spent nuclear fuel to generate power.
Nuclear fuel has been identified as a technology for climate change mitigation and closed fuel cycle is the way forward for sustainable development, he said.
“India has decades of experience in this technology. Unless the country gets accustomed to pioneering technology, there will be no knowledge economy. Proven technology is obsolete technology,” he said, while discussing plans to build an advanced ultra super critical thermal plant in the country.
Major Singh, member (planning) of Central Electrical Authority, stressed on the importance of reducing power transmission and distribution (T&D) losses.
“We have a long way to go to reach the international level of T&D losses which is at 15 per cent from the current national average of 23 per cent,” he said.
Reducing T&D losses would increase the per capita energy consumption of the country from around 900 units (gross) to the world average of 3,000 units.
Rajpal, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Power, urged CPRI to state its requirements for expansion properly, and said institutional bylaws would be changed to give it more powers.
About CPRI
CPRI is one of the largest research and test houses in the world, catering to a wide range of services for the power sector, including generation, transmission and distribution.