Misplaced priorities

Arguments in favour of nuclear power have been revived in recent years, especially in emerging economies like India, China, Russia et al. The proponents of nuclear power usually put three points of view to justify their demand. These are: (a) Nuclear energy is safer today due to the induction of better and safer technology. (b) Nuclear is a better energy option for the mitigation of carbon emission and global warming. (c) India needs nuclear energy to sustain its projected rate of economic growth.

It is reported that India has planned to increase its nuclear power generation by more than three times from the current level of 6,780 MW to 22,480 MW by 2031. This decision is claimed to be in line with India's global commitments to promote green energy to reduce carbon footprints, reported Times of India. As per a report by Businessline, the former Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission, Anil Kakodkar, has claimed that nuclear power alone can provide low-cost power and help India to meet its 'net-zero' targets. In December 2021, in-principle approval has been accorded to Jaitapur (Maharashtra) site for setting up six nuclear power reactors by the Union Government. The Minister of State, Atomic Energy, has claimed that this would make it the largest nuclear power generating site in the country with a total capacity of 9,900 MW, reported Moneycontrol.

And for the first time since the Fukushima Daiichi accident in 2011, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has revised its projections of the potential growth of nuclear power capacity for electricity generation during the coming decades. The IAEA now expects the world's nuclear-generating capacity to double to 792 GW (net electrical) by 2050 from 393 GW (e) last year (2020).

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is also on track to build the largest reactor ever, with the first plasma projected in 2030. Thousands of engineers and scientists have contributed to the design of ITER since the idea for an international joint experiment in fusion was first launched in 1985. The ITER Members — China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States — are now engaged in a 35-year collaboration to build and operate the ITER experimental device, and together bring fusion to the point where a demonstration fusion reactor can be designed.

Declining importance of nuclear power in developed economies

Table 1 reveals that while during the last one decade, the share of nuclear power in the global electricity generation has declined, the share of nuclear power has increased in India, Russia and China. It also reveals that in developed economies; the share of nuclear power has declined.

The importance of nuclear power in most of the developed countries is declining. For example, France derives about 70 per cent of its electricity from nuclear energy but the government's current policy is to reduce this to 50 per cent by 2035. Until 2011, Japan was generating some 30 per cent of electricity from its reactors and this was expected to increase to at least 40 per cent by 2017. The plan is now for a modest 20 per cent by 2030. In the late 1990s, nuclear power generated approximately 25 per cent of the UK's electricity. Currently, it has come down to 16 per cent.

China — the new nuclear powerhouse

China's shift to nuclear power is phenomenal. China has planned to install at least 150 new reactors in the next 15 years. It is expected that as early as the middle of this decade, the country will surpass the US as the world's largest generator of nuclear power. It may be mentioned that 30 years ago, China did not produce any nuclear power but since 2011 (the year when Fukushima nuclear disaster happened in Japan), China's production has increased by 400 per cent. Bloomberg reported that it now plans to generate 200 GW by 2035. As of June 2021, China has a total nuclear power generation capacity of 49.6 GW from 50 reactors.

In June this year, China made a major breakthrough in nuclear research when its 'artificial sun' — EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak), or HT-7U — has sustained a plasma reaction for a whopping 101 seconds at 120 million degrees Celsius, setting new records in the field of nuclear fusion. Experts believe that this breakthrough could pave the way for a carbon-neutral energy future.

Nuclear power is not safe and green

Nuclear disasters in Chernobyl and Fukushima have shown the world how unsafe nuclear power is. This energy is also not green. It is alleged that over the last decade, the nuclear power industry has successfully rebranded an appallingly toxic energy industry as 'zero-carbon' and even 'clean' by not mentioning the terrible legacy of nuclear waste, reported The Guardian.

On Tuesday, (December 21, 2021) 13 members of the EU Commission's Technical Expert Group (TEG) put out a petition calling on nuclear energy not to be labeled as 'green'. "We recommend that nuclear fission has no place on the EU taxonomy of sustainable activities," the group, led by Dawn Slevin, a financial expert and core member of the TEG, wrote.

Nuclear – an autocratic technology

It would be naïve to believe that the political establishments are not aware of the negative consequences of nuclear power. The question may be raised then why the governments of emerging economies of India, China, Russia et al have aligned themselves with the nuclear establishment without fully exploiting other alternative energy sources?

The probable reasons could be their preference for megaprojects like deep-sea exploration, large refineries and power plants with highly complex technology. Production of electricity using micro or mini turbines with decentralised power production facilities has been consciously discarded, paving the way for mega thermal/hydro/nuclear projects with centralised control on production and distribution. Since the 1950s, the size of reactor units has grown from 60 MW to more than 1,300 MW, with corresponding economies of scale in operation. To run such a large nuclear plant, the utilities will require the support of the state in a wide range of functional areas starting from the procumbent of raw materials, disposal of wastes and arranging subsidy for marketing the electricity it produces.

In the absence of organised public opinion against such a blatant exercise of authority, these states will construct new nuclear power plants knowing fully well that the safety and economic cost of nuclear energy is much more than the cheaper options already available in other energy sources. This hunger for 'absolute power' of the rulers of the 'undemocratic' states like India, China, Russia is pushing these countries towards highly complex and centralised nuclear power projects as this is the most suitable technology for retaining state's hegemony — in collaboration with transnational energy utilities — on citizens' basic needs.

Views expressed are personal