India is at the Threshold of a "Nuclear Renaissance"

May 24 (LPAC)--Addressing the 17th convocation of the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, the Chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), Anil Kakodkar said: "India is on a rapid economic growth path and needs access to energy at a magnitude higher than the present level. In an environmentally conscious world, nuclear energy thus stands out as an inevitable option. As a matter of fact, one now visualizes a nuclear renaissance. That is what we are working for."

The Indian AEC chief told the graduating students: "Ours (nuclear power generation program) is a self-reliant program where the R&D carried out in our laboratories, has been successfully translated into a commercially successful and robust nuclear power program based on the Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) system. I am happy to inform you that the performance of our indigenously developed PHWR systems is at par with, or even better than, global benchmarks."