[Reader-list] NUCLEAR DEAL: GOOD OR BAD

[chanchal malviya]

NUCLEAR DEAL: FOR THE NATION OR AGAINST THE NATION
 
From a couple of years we have been hearing a lot on Nuclear Deal. While villagers and poor people do not know anything about these stuffs, most of the literate group feels, the deal is a necessity to help India meet its Energy need. Unfortunately, no one seems to do some study on this before incorporating such thoughts within them. Let me share with you some of my study about this hype deal. Here are few points that must be analyzed before I quote the tits and bits of this Nuclear Energy.
 
1.       Doubt No 1: Though being a scientific topic, neither media nor politicians bothered to bring the scientists into picture. 
2.       Doubt No 2: Congress Party hurried to push this deal within Bush regime. And they were in so much hurry that they broke all ethics to force it on the nation. While China took around 10 years to go into the deed (I do not know in detail what their deal actually is, but surely they are not bound to not use their nuclear resources for research and military purpose)
3.       Doubt No 3: The deal was not revealed to even the parliament members, forget about the nation. Neither did Congress bother to put into discussion. The small discussion that took place was a forced situation by opposition and Left front. 
4.       Doubt No 4: Like a Traitor, Congress signed the Agreement and sent it to IAEA overnight while it promised to the nation that it would not do so forcing the nation into a situation which is yet not clear to its people. 
5.       Doubt No 5: Immediately the sign off took place, part of the deal was made public, ensuring that even if public knew it, it is not going to harm the Agreement
 
If we carefully analyze the move of Congress, we find following sequence of event that very closely run around this deal.
 
1.       Removal of Dr. Kalam from Presidential position, despite of the fact that Congress is pro – Muslim and anti – Hindu. (Refer last paragraph for this conclusion)
2.       Forcing Sethu Samudram Project, in which Congress mislead the nation around Rama as a fiction character
3.       Forcing Nuclear Deal and misleading the nation that it is a necessity of the Nation
 
Now, it would be surprising to understand that all these three issues are very closely related to each other and a step by step move by Congress to support the design of USA and put the Nation into darkness. As I say this, here I put my points to support it.
 
On February 25, 2006 an article was published in Press Trust of India as quoted below:
 
‘BARC physicists Usha Pal and Jagannathan have designed a Thorium Breeder Reactor (ATBR) generating 600 mw of electricity that will consume only 880-kg of plutonium every two years. The reactor produces 50 per cent of its energy from thorium.
 
At first, no one is talking about Thorium Reactors at all. However, even if the talk comes into picture, this is what is generally said:
 
Some DAE scientists say the indo-us deal would pave the way for India acquiring the plutonium it needs for its long-term energy security from thorium.
 
While the News published says (which is never brought into picture)?
 
According to some DAE scientists, this ATBR is poised to start thorium utilization by India today without having to wait for 30 years if the Indo-US deal went through. 
Our Indian scientists have presented paper on this in Istanbul as well. So my doubt number one remains a serious doubt, as this topic should actually be a scientific debate and not a dirty political debate, where even the opposition do not dare to speak the truth.
 
Having understood about the usage of Thorium to an extent, I further found some surprising data. On August 16, 2006, Prime News Wire publishes:
 
The United States government's Department of Agriculture has set aside grants of up to $10 million for exploring the feasibility of using Thorium for the generation of electricity and Bayport had identified, and reached a preliminary agreement, with a consultant who specializes in procuring grants of this type and will begin immediately to make applications for this grant on behalf of Northamerican.
 
I had the doubt – why Thorium Reactors in US, when they have abundant of Uranium – so abundant that they are selling it to India. Prime News Wire says:
 
Thorium has long been considered as a reactor fuel -- and for good reason: this naturally occurring element is far more abundant, more efficient, and safer to use than uranium, plus, Thorium reactors leave behind very little plutonium, meaning that governments have as much as 80% reduced availability to weapons-grade plutonium for the making of nuclear weapons.
 
Now the picture got a bit clear. It is Thorium which is preferred over Uranium by the Scientists for generation of Energy, as Thorium not only produces far less waste, but also utilizes the Plutonium waste of Uranium based Reactors. This is well supported by February 25, 2006 article of Press Trust of India, which says:
 
There is at least 3000 tons of plutonium waiting to be reprocessed from spent fuel discharged globally from uranium-based reactors.
 
According to NEI (Nuclear Energy Institute, US), number of Operating Reactors in US is around 104. The oldest was established in 1969 and the last Reactor came into use in 1996. Since, 1996 US has neither established any Uranium Reactor nor does it has any plan to do it. WHY?
 
According to John P. Shannon, (U. S. Marine Corps Major, Former Nuclear Physicist/Nuclear Engineer, Former Supervising Nuclear Physicist/Engineer and Former Manager of Nuclear Safety, Industrial Safety/Industrial Hygiene at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory) around 200 reactors in US has been Shut down (you can find the list on Internet if you do a little search) for following reasons:
 
1.       Safety: Nuclear plants are each vulnerable to air strikes, truck bombs, boat bombs, and of course, the well-equipped and well-armed single madman or small group of terrorists. All anyone needs to do is toss a grenade into a Spent Fuel Pool and hundreds of thousands or even MILLIONS could die
2.       Cost: The vulnerabilities can be significantly reduced by closing/converting the nuke plants to Natural Gas and Wind Farms. The energy price per kilowatt is much lower than for nuclear or any other energy source. And there’s no “decommissioning” of wind turbines, either. While nuclear fuel is not only costly, but the cost of maintenance, security, and waste maintenance goes beyond control. While it appears that little Nuclear fuel produces more energy (as the amount of heat required to melt Uranium and produce steam is high in this case), but all the factors sum up to much more than comparative methodologies
3.       Waste: Uranium reactors produce huge amount of Plutonium waste and cost to maintain that waste goes even higher.
 
Adding to all these points, it is found that even today, energy produced through Nuclear Reactors in US has not passed the 20% mark of total Energy produced in the Nation.
 
We all know that Uranium is in highest amount with Australia. Yet the country is not adopting to Uranium Reactors – WHY?
 
With this data, it would be useful to understand Nuclear Reactors in brief:
 
The principles for using nuclear power to produce electricity are the same for most types of reactors. The energy released from continuous fission of the atoms of the fuel is harnessed as heat in either a gas or water, and is used to produce steam. The steam is used to drive the turbines which produce electricity (as in most fossil fuel plants).
 
Thus, there is no fuss that India would be a super power with Uranium.
 
Having given the background of why US is keen to sell of Uranium, one must also understand that the Economy growth of India in past 10 years have been amazingly great. Our foreign reserve started growing with the Initiative of BJP and we find today Congress taking the credit. However, with this nuclear deal, there is a chance that our Reserve of around 300 Billion dollars would be drained out. This is a subject that would require another article to detail, and I will come back to the relation between the steps of Congress to end up with this deal.
 
1.       Removal of Dr. Kalam: Though there are more reasons behind this move, but in relation to nuclear deal it is for sure that as a president, he was well into media. He even said that we are keen to build our own Thorium Reactors. He could be kept out of media only when he was not holding the highest position. Congress ensured this took place. 
2.       Sethu Samudram Project: The whole nation is duped on the ground of Rama, being a fiction character. In fact, it was VHP who took this issue so hugely that Congress and its allies were abound to speak about Lord Rama, and when they spoke – they spoke anti – Hindu – we all know this. The reality is, at Rama Sethu, we have huge amount of Thorium deposit. No doubt with the news highlighted above, US have an eye on this. And as we all know from the Agreement that was made public, that India cannot do anything without the inspection and permission of US in the field of nuclear technology. Hence, undoubtedly Sethu Samudram project is all about digging the Thorium out in one go. But what will India do of it, as they are now bound not to use it without reporting to US. I doubt, and have an independent view that they will all be taken away by US. Our scientists would be helpless for sure. In addition by hurting the sentiments of Hindus,
 Congress no doubt was pleasing the Muslims.
3.       Nuclear Deal: In this light, it is not well understood where the Congress headed in four years. Inflation is not an issue for Congress. Bush makes Indians responsible for food price rise. It is up to the readers to think on why Congress did it in this manner – something which must be investigated.
 
Why Congress is Anti – Hindu:
 
This nation, today called as India, is a land of Hindus from hundreds of thousands of years. Here is a time now that anyone talking about Hinduism and in support of Hindus is termed as Communal. One can openly talk about the riots in Gujarat, but no one is allowed to talk on the pre-riot Godhra case which became the cause of Riot – clearly Hindus did not Riot with pleasure. One is allowed to talk on Babri, but no one is allowed to hundreds of temples demolished in Kashmir and in other Islamic countries. One is allowed to talk on Bilkis Bano case, but no one can say a word on kidnapping and mass religious rapes of Hindu girls by Muslims – it happened in mass in Kashmir and it is happening in many Muslim dominated areas in India. One such news was published by Express India on July 22nd 2008. One is allowed to talk on extra facilities to Muslims, but no one can say word about Hindus of Kashmirs who are living like Refugees in their own nation. No Hindu
 can talk on the Massacres that took place in Kashmir. This is an irony in the history of India that 80% Hindus of this nation have no room to talk about themselves in their own nation. I wonder where we Hindus will go when we have more Kashmirs and more ethnic cleansing of Hindus within our own nation taking place. Thus any party who is not allowing Hindus to talk on Hinduism is surely anti – Hindu.