nuclear-news

India plays with nuclear fast breeder reactor – research underfunded by 80 percent!

Rao said the scientific community had done much more than the money it was given over the decades. “The best money the government gave scientists was only enough for 20 percent of their requirement.

http://metroindia.com/Details.aspx?id=10864

November 18, 2013

Ians/Bangalore : India will become a leader in nuclear energy with new technology which is being used for the first time to build a fast breeder reactor to generate 500MW at Kalpakkam near Chennai, a top scientist said on Sunday. “We are building a fast breeder reactor, the first of its kind to generate 500MW through a process which is different from the usual nuclear reactor,” Prime Minister’s scientific advisory council chairman C.N.R. Rao said.

Rao said if the new technology succeeded, the reactor would be commissioned by April 2014 at the Kalpakkam atomic power plant, about 80km from Chennai in Tamil Nadu. “If this succeeds, we will become a leader in nuclear energy with completely new technology, which we have mastered,” Rao said.Claiming that Indian scientists had performed well despite marginal investment in science infrastructure, Rao said the scientific community had done much more than the money it was given over the decades. “The best money the government gave scientists was only enough for 20 percent of their requirement.

We have never made full investment in anything. Ask the government and politicians why they have given so little for us. If I have to get $1,000, I get only $10, which is 10 percent and comes late,” Rao said at his home-office of the premier Indian Institute of Science (IISc).He further said that India must invest more in science as its future is linked with it, and the country would change for the better if the government and the private sector increased spending on science education. “More investments will enable the youth to look at science as an important area of work for a great future. Only countries which advanced scientifically made progress, while those who neglected it are not known,” Rao told reporters.

Noting that China was already doing peta-computing and hexa-computing, Rao said he was fighting with the government to invest in supercomputing so that at least a great institute like IISc would have a centre, which was proposed a decade ago. Regretting that the quantity of scientific papers published in India remained flat, the eminent scientist said China had increased its scientific publications and was going to be number one in the world in the area next year.He also said that basic science research is getting its due now. “I spoke to the prime minister and thanked him for the honour. I feel basic science is getting its due now,” Rao told reporters.

Hoping that more students would earnestly take up science research, Rao said the country’s foremost nuclear scientist Homi Bhabha should also be awarded with the (Bharat Ratna) honour. Rao’s wife Indumathi said her husband had always been her ‘Bharat Ratna’. “Scientists work very hard but rarely get recognition while it is easy for others like sports persons to get an award,” she added.

November 17, 2013 - Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized