Nuclear energy is an inevitable option for India as the country's capacity to produce nuclear power could go up to as much as 200,000 MW by the year 2050 with the addition of more fast breeder reactors, a top government official has said.
Nuclear power currently accounts for around 4,000 MW of the total 140,000 MW installed electricity generating capacity in the country excluding captive power plants, said R Chidambaram, principal scientific advisor to the Government of India.
"The country's main thrust would be coal-based power in the next 20 years," he said.
Installed capacity of nuclear energy is projected to go up to 20,000 MW by the year 2020, Chidambaram told a China-India-US science, technology and innovation workshop in Bengaluru on Tuesday night.
"Thereafter it would grow very rapidly with more fast breeder reactors being introduced in the system. The capacity can grow to as much as 200,000 MW by the year 2050," said Chidambaram, who is also a professor at the Department of Atomic Energy, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.
But Chidambaram hastened to add: "India's nuclear power production capacity going up to 200,000 MW by 2050 depends upon how the international situation changes. It depends on how quickly the proliferation misconceptions are removed from the system."
Emphasising that nuclear power is an inevitable option to meet India's rapid growth in future, Chidambaram