Scraps Stuffs - Random musings from apun ka desh

India is already energy starved with huge power deficits that will only increase in the years and decades to come. To bridge the gap we need to

1. Cut down the transmission and distribution losses (euphemism for power theft) considerably - this cannot happen to a large extent because of political reasons (read vote-bank politics)
2. Generate more power at a faster rate

We have various methods of generating power with their consequent pros and cons

1. Hydel power - unpredictable because due to the large scale climate changes that are occuring, rainfall patterns will become more unpredictable, displace lots of people with consequent resettlement issues, lots of arable land is lost and lots of forests are usually lost too
   
2. Coal fired thermal power - damaging environmental effects due to the huge amounts of greenhouse gases that are released. Besides, the coal available in India has high ash content that needs to be removed and this is costly.
3. Naptha/Natural gas fired thermal power - not available in India in the required quantities yet. Imported fuel supply is unpredictable because gas tankers are vulnerable and pipelines are politically sensitive and who knows whether they will see the light of day.
4. Nuclear power - getting cheaper, able to build them faster, pretty safe but with long term environmental consequences of spent fuel which is highly radioactive. Positives are that no greenhouses are released, we have the technology to build what we want now and the research capability to be able to build what we need in the future.

We seem to be taking the view that nuclear power is the way ahead and that's why the nuclear deal with the US is so important in terms of what we are supposed to be getting. Since we don't have enough enriched uranium in the country (what with our enrichment capabilities being pilot scale/lab scale) we need to get these from outside. The problem is that the Nuclear Supply Group (NSG), a cartel of suppliers of nuclear materials and technology that was specifically created to deny these technologies and materials to India, will not sell us the enriched uranium we need. This deal allows the US to negotiate with the stakeholders - US Congress and the NSG countries - to sell us all the enriched uranium that we need. This will enable us to develop bigger nuclear reactors (assuming we are able to handle the expense) which generate more power. This will ameliorate to a certain extent, the power deficit.

What we are giving up in return is less clear. Separation of power and military reactors is one stuff that we need to do, as per the agreement. Agreeing to full scope safeguards including intrusive inspections without warning as per the additional protocol to be signed with the IAEA is another thing that we need to do. Its not clear how difficult this is to do. What is clear to me is that this separation will forever close down our option to use reactor grade plutonium for nuclear weapons, unless we cite supreme national security imperatives and say "Balls to the world".

As usual the devil is in the details and needless to say caveat emptor.