PTI
NEW DELHI, Jul 9: On a day when there was hectic and fast-paced political development following the withdrawal of support by the Left to the UPA government, the Congress on Wednesday released a two page document on why the Indo-US nuclear deal is important.
The party said the energy needs of the country are growing to increase exponentially and only nuclear power is the way forward. "The deal is the key for the prosperity and economic growth of the country," said Congress Spokesman Manish Tiwari, releasing the document.
The document said that the share of nuclear power in world wide energy production was one per cent in 1960 and between 1960 to 1986, it rose to 16 per cent of world's energy production. The share has remained constant since then.
It said there are 439 nuclear power reactors operating around the world and the US accounts for 104 of these reactors followed by France at 59, Japan at 55, Russian Federation 31 and Republic of Korea 20.
"India generates 132,110 lakh MW of power annually. Of this, 64.7 per cent is generated from thermal power, 26.2 per cent is generated through hydro electric power, 5.9 per cent is from renewable power sources and only 3.1 per cent through nuclear power," said the document.
It added, "Given the increased price of oil and gas internationally, issues of climate change associated with coal as well as the breakdown of consensus on big dams, India needs to explore each and every option aggressively."
Emphasising the need of nuclear power, the document visualised a scenario wherein nuclear power would contribute 10 per cent of the country's energy needs by the year 2022 and 26 per cent of the needs by the year 2052.
"India would require 500-600 thousand MW of power by 2030 up from 132,110 at present. Thus nuclear power is the way forward for India," the document added.
Out of the 35 new nuclear power plants under construction in the world, Asia accounts for 24 of these. While China is building six new nuclear power plants to get 5,222 MW power for its grid, India too is building six such plants which would add 2910 MW of to its grid.