India can't afford to miss "bus of nuclear renaissance": PM
New Delhi, August 31, IRNA
India-Atomic Reactors-PM
Dedicating the 3rd and 4th 540 Mega Watt reactors at Tarapur Atomic Power Plant near Mumbai, to the nation, today India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that there is today talk the world over of a nuclear renaissance and we cannot afford to miss the bus or lag behind those global developments.
He said that we are fortunate to have vast thorium resources, which we must harness, said an official statement.
The prime minister emphasized the need to enable "our industries to gain access to cutting edge technology by creating opportunities for our scientists" to participate in the international exchange of scientific ideas and technical know-how.
"We need to pave the way for India to benefit from nuclear commerce without restrictions. We have set a modest target of 20,000 MW of nuclear power generation by the year 2020. This can be doubled with the opening up of international cooperation", he added.
The development of our indigenous capability in the area of nuclear power generation demonstrates that where there is a will there must be a way.
Starting from humble beginnings in the 1960s, the country today has seventeen power reactors, largely Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor plants. Those that we have developed are, I am proud to say, state-of- the-art facilities.
As we move forward on development of fast breeder reactors and thorium reactors, I have no doubt that we would in the future exercise global leadership in these technologies as well, he said.
India can't afford to miss "bus of nuclear renaissance": PM
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