HitXP » Please answer Mr.Prime Minister

A set of few simple questions which the citizens of India would like our prime minister and the UPA to answer.

Its all about the Indo-US nuclear deal, which the government is trying to project to the masses as if it is a one stop solution to all our energy and strategic needs and as if there would be “no tomorrow” for India if we dont sign this deal today.

1. USA has not allowed even a single nuclear reactor to come up in its country in the past 35 years! Why?

2. The US companies that manufacture nuclear reactors and related components, do not have a market in their very own country, and yet would enter into a business with India which would go up to about 100 billion US dollars in total in the next two decades. What logic explains this?

3. Ever since the governments of India and USA announced their intention to sign the nuclear deal in 2005, the price of Uranium in the international market has increased by over four times!

How does the government of India explain this as “cheap affordable power generating source”? Who is going to pay for the costly uranium?

4. The Cost of power produced by existing reactors in India is Rs 4 per unit, which after huge government subsidies goes to about Rs 2.8 per unit. The cost of power produced by new reactors resulting from the deal would be atleast Rs 5 per unit.

Now look at the cost of power generated in India today using thermal power (coal) which is Rs 2.5 per unit! So, power generated by nuclear energy is almost twice as costly as conventional power. In fact power generated by the new Sasan mega project in Madhya Pradesh using coal would be only Rs 1.19! What is the need for generate costly nuclear based power in India which at the most would account for 8-10% of our power needs by 2020?

5. Who would pay for the costly nuclear power? The legendary aam aadmi or the government (which indirectly bills back to the middles class taxes)? Will our electricity bill double with the same usage?

6. Why is China inspite of having options to generate massive nuclear energy based power, instead is opening lines of new coal based power generationplants every month? Isnt is obvious that it is because the coal based power is cheaper than nuclear energy based power? Doesnt our govt still have the common sense which the chinese counterpart has?

7. In India we do not use petroleum products to generate power, which in turn means, going for nuclear power will not reduce our oil demands in any way. Which means, given the rising oil and uranium costs, there will be even greater pressure on our foreign exchange reserves, increase the external dependency of our economy even more, and further ensure that even a greater percentage of our GDP will go to imports i.e for oil and uranium. How does the government address this issue of strategic importance?

8. What are the Government’s plans for one third of the world’s thorium deposits that are lying in India? Are we going to ignore it, which if properly utilised would mean very cheap nuclear energy based electric power, since unlike Uranium which needs to be imported from NSG countries by paying money, Thorium being abundantly available in India, is free!