Nuclear deal: The road ahead for India

Nuclear energy currently occupies only about 3 per cent share in India’s total commercial energy mix, and even the most optimistic projections do not see it as ever going beyond 15 per cent. No assessment has been made available whether the cost of nuclear energy generated from imported fuel, equipment and technology would be economically viable. Nor has there has been any detailed study or considered policy conclusion whether with the same quantum of investment India would be better off giving priority to nuclear energy rather than to renewable sources of energy like hydropower, wind and solar energy.

Even in the civilian nuclear energy sector, India’s comparative advantage lies in using the thorium route in order to take advantage of its ample thorium reserves, not in building external dependencies by buying reactors and nuclear material from abroad. What happens to the enormous investments that would have been made in nuclear power plants in India and by the end-users of the anticipated power supplies from nuclear reactors if for any reason the US halts nuclear cooperation with India?
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