India to use untested nuclear technology

India plans to cut carbon and fuel poverty with untested nuclear power

Prime minister Manmohan Singh announces 100-fold increase in nuclear energy output by 2050 with thorium technology Guardian.co.uk by Randeep Ramesh  29 September 09

Nuclear power has been a contentious issue in India. Although the country has had a decades-old atomic programme, it was effectively blacklisted from global civilian nuclear trade after testing a nuclear device in 1974. That embargo was lifted in 2008 after negotations with Washington………..

However campaigners said “if climate change is the problem, nuclear power is not the answer”. SP Udayakumar, convenor of India’s Alliance for Anti-Nuclear Movements, questioned whether the technology India was pushing would ever be ready.

“The nuclear technology the prime minister talks about is not proven. If we start going ahead then the issue is the amount of carbon emitted by building, maintaining, operating and decommissioning nuclear plants means that (nuclear power) is a hugely polluting technology. If it does not work then we are left with waste that takes 24,000 years to become safe. It is a gamble we will pay for generations to come

India plans to cut carbon and fuel poverty with untested nuclear power | Environment | guardian.co.uk

September 30, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, India, safety | antinuclear, nuclear, radiation, radioactive