Mr. President,
Kindly accept our
congratulations on behalf of my Government and on my own behalf on your election
as the President of the 50th General Conference. I am sure, under your able
leadership and with the support of your team and the Secretariat of the Agency,
this General Conference will be able to accomplish the tasks before it.
I take this opportunity
to welcome the entry of the Republic of Palau, the Republic of Mozambique, the
Republic of Malawi and the Republic of Montenegro to the Membership of IAEA.
Let me also use this
occasion to once again congratulate Director-General Dr.Mohamed ElBaradei and
the Agency for the well deserved
Nobel Peace Prize.
Mr. President,
I would like to begin
with a message from our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to this fiftieth
session of the General Conference of the Agency and I Quote:
Quote
“I
am happy to convey my greetings to Members of the International Atomic Energy
Agency, its Director-General, and members of IAEA Secretariat on the occasion of
this 50th General Conference. Over
the past five decades, the Agency has made commendable progress in fulfilling
its objectives as laid down in its Statute.
The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Dr. ElBaradei and the Agency last year
is a timely and well deserved tribute to the IAEA’s contribution.
The
International Atomic Energy Agency is an unique organization in the entire UN
system, founded on a strong science base and dedicated to spreading
understanding of and knowledge about the benefits of atomic energy in a safe and
secure manner, with special attention to those areas of the world where
developmental needs and aspirations are yet to be fulfilled and are therefore
most pressing. With issues related
to energy resource sustainability assuming increasing salience and global
climate change looming large as arguably the most serious challenge of our time,
atomic energy with its immense energy potential and readily available and
deployable technologies has become an inevitable and indispensable part of the
solution.
Nuclear energy being unique in its ability to regenerate more fuel from
uranium and thorium several ten-folds while producing energy, offers us the
possibility of meeting global energy requirements in a non-polluting and
sustainable manner. However, if we are to be successful in realizing the
potential of the atom in meeting our needs, we need to act in concert consistent
with the spirit of global harmony and adhering to our respective international
commitments. The IAEA and Director-General deserve high compliments for
ensuring that the Agency is an effective platform for the global community to
work together in its noble mission of ‘atoms for peace and prosperity’.
India,
home to one-sixth of the world population and having embarked on a rapid
economic growth path, has a strong interest in utilizing the full potential of
atomic energy for national development. I am confident this will be realized,
based on our natural endowment of vast thorium resources and the development of
effective technologies for their utilization.
We
have developed advanced technological capability based on our own self-reliant
efforts, while having maintained an unblemished record of responsible behaviour.
I am glad that the emerging possibility for expanding civil nuclear cooperation
between India and the international community would supplement and complement
our domestic efforts to meet the developmental aspirations of our people through
additional nuclear energy inputs. We look forward to cooperating with
international partners in realizing this possibility.
While
nuclear power is of crucial importance for sustainable development, of equal
significance are other peaceful applications of atomic energy. The Agency’s
Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT) is one such important effort which
I am happy to learn is being given special emphasis. India having developed
significant experience in affordable cancer – related programmes has been
supporting this activity actively, and would be pleased to offer a recently
developed Cobalt – 60 teletherapy machine (BHABHATRON) as a contribution to
the Agency’s PACT.
It
is my hope that the fiftieth session of the General Conference would be an
important milestone in the ongoing and future work of the Agency. I wish you all
productive deliberations and progress in your important tasks. My greetings and
good wishes to all.”
Unquote
Mr. President,
The Agency and the
Department of Atomic Energy, India, have traced history together.
This year is also the 50th year of the Bhabha Atomic Research
Centre, (BARC), the premier nuclear research centre in India. Dr. Homi Bhabha,
the founder of the Indian Atomic Energy Programme, was the President of the
first Geneva Conference on ‘Peaceful uses of Atomic Energy’ held during
August 1955.
Mr. President,
The activities in atomic
energy in India continue to make progress in accordance with the well
established three stage nuclear power programme. Units 3 and 4 of
the Tarapur Atomic Power Station, which are the
540 MWe
indigenously designed and built Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR)
systems, are now in commercial operation. One more 220
MWe PHWR unit at Kaiga would also become operational before the end of
this financial year. The Government
of India has recently approved pre-project activities on eight reactor units at
four different sites with a total power generation capacity of 6800 MWe.
With the completion of these Units alongwith other Units that are already
under construction, the total nuclear power generation capacity in India would
reach around 14000 MWe.
We now have sixteen
reactor units with a total capacity of 3900 MWe in operation.
Unit I of Kakrapar Atomic Power Station had a record continuous operation
of 372 days before it was shut down for mandatory inspection.
The average duration of outage of biennial shutdown has now been reduced
to just 26 days.
Major
upgrades for ageing management and safety were completed on three PHWR units.
The safety upgrades at the two Boiling Water Reactors that started
commercial operations in 1969, were completed in just four and a half months.
The replacement of all reactor feeders of one of our PHWRs was
accomplished for the first time in the world.
One of our latest 540 MWe PHWRs was offered for pre-start-up peer review
by an expert team of WANO. This was the first ever review of its kind in Asia.
We are now ready for implementation of the newly designed 700 MWe PHWR units which would enable further
significant reduction in the capital cost per MWe of indigenous PHWR units.
India considers a closed
nuclear fuel cycle of crucial importance for implementation of its three stage
nuclear power programme with its long-term objective of tapping vast energy
available in Indian thorium resources, based on development of effective
technologies for their utilisation. This is central to India’s vision of
energy security and the Government is committed to its full realisation through
development and deployment of technologies pertaining to all aspects of a closed
nuclear fuel cycle.
As
a part of our development efforts in high level radioactive waste management
technologies, India achieved two major landmarks this year namely (i)
hot commissioning of Advanced Vitrification System (AVS) which employs
Joule-heated ceramic melter and (ii) demonstration of Cold Crucible
Vitrification Technology.
The Fast Breeder Test
Reactor (FBTR) at Kalpakkam, which has been the foundation of our fast reactor
programme, has shown excellent performance with an availability factor of over
90% in the last few campaigns. The
unique U-Pu mixed carbide fuel used in FBTR has reached a record burn-up of
154.3 GWd/t without a single fuel pin failure.
This achievement has been possible through a combination of stringent
fuel specifications, quality control during fabrication and inputs obtained from
the detailed post irradiation examination of fuel at different stages combined
with the modeling of the behaviour of the fuel clad and wrapper materials.
This year, we have proposed to introduce mixed oxide fuel with 45% Pu in
FBTR in order to increase the power level as well as to provide experience on
the behaviour of high Pu content oxide fuel in fast reactors. Last year I had
informed that the carbide fuel discharged from FBTR at a burn up of up to 100
GWd/t had been successfully reprocessed. This
experience in the reprocessing campaigns have provided significant inputs to the
design of the equipment and flow sheet for the Demonstration Fast Reactor Fuel
Reprocessing Plant [DFRP], which is in an advanced stage of construction.
The construction of 500
MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) is on schedule and is expected to be
commissioned by the year 2010. In
keeping with our philosophy of efficient utilization of a fuel material by
closing the fuel cycle, we have embarked on the design and construction of a
fuel cycle facility to cater to the PFBR. The
facility will be commissioned by 2012.
Simultaneous with the
construction of the PFBR we have already initiated programmes towards the
conceptualization of the FBRs to follow, with the objective of further enhancing
the fuel performance as well as making the energy production more economical. To
ensure rapid growth in the fast reactor programme for meeting the energy needs
in the country, we have already embarked on R&D programmes targeting towards
the introduction of metallic fuel in fast reactors, which would provide much
higher breeding. A host of R&D
programmes in associated areas such as advanced materials, structural mechanics,
heat transport, in-service inspection systems, physics, chemistry, safety, etc.,
are being pursued to provide R&D inputs for further advancement of FBR
technology. This comprehensive and indigenous programme in all major areas
provides a strong foundation for India’s fast reactor programme. India is also
prepared to contribute to international efforts in scaling new technological
frontiers in this field as an equal partner with other countries having advanced
technological capabilities.
Thorium utilization is
the long-term core objective of the Indian nuclear programme for providing
energy independence on a sustainable basis. The third stage of the programme is
thus based onThorium-Uranium-233 cycle. We
are actively engaged in developing 300 MWe Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR).
The design of this reactor incorporates several advanced features to meet the
objectives being set out for future advanced nuclear reactor systems. A critical
facility to validate physics design of AHWR will be functional this year. The
facility is flexible enough to study the physics of advanced systems, including
source driven systems, in future. Development of
high current proton accelerator and spallation source for Accelerator
Driven Sub-Critical Systems (ADS)
is also being pursued. Such systems would offer the promise of
shorter doubling time, even
with Thorium, and incineration of long lived actinides and fission products,
thus leading to the possibility of eliminating long-lived radioactive waste. A
Compact High Temperature Reactor (CHTR), with 100 kW thermal power rating, is
being developed as a demonstrator of technologies relevant for next generation
high temperature reactor systems. Such reactor systems will address the needs
such as electricity generation in remote places, production of alternative
transportation fuel such as hydrogen, and refinement of low–grade coal and oil
deposits to recover fossil fluid fuel.
India has had a fusion
research programme of its own since the early eighties. Two tokamaks have been
indigenously built. The Steady
State Super conducting Tokamak-SST-1 is currently undergoing commissioning
tests. India has recently joined ITER as
one of seven full partners. On the
basis of indigenous experience and expertise available in Indian industry, India
will contribute equipment to ITER and will participate in its subsequent
operation and experiments. Indian scientists are also working on establishing an
India- based Nutrino observatory for doing comprehensive research in Neutrino
Physics, an area in which Indian research groups have sustained interest
and have made significant
contributions. We would
welcome participation of interested international scientific groups in this
effort. The 2.5 GeV
synchrotron radiation source
Indus-2 being set up at Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore,
has started functioning. The
utilization of the storage ring for
condensed matter studies using the synchrotron
radiation from the
bending magnet beam lines
has also begun.
The excellent safety record of Indian reactors and other facilities has
been achieved through sustained Research and Development programmes. As part of
the safety studies on nuclear containment structures, the construction of a 1:4
size containment test model has been initiated at Tarapur. The ultimate load
capacity of the containment would be studied on this test model and the
experimental results would be available to the participants of a round robin
exercise, which is being organized by us. We would welcome participation of
interested research groups in this exercise.
As in the previous
years, we have been interacting with the IAEA very closely in almost all its
activities. We have been an
active participant in the IAEA – INPRO programme. We were one of the six
countries to perform a national case study for development of INPRO methodology
under INPRO phase-1B part-1 activity which was done using the Indian Advanced
Heavy Water Reactor. We are also
involved in joint case studies on fast reactor with closed fuel cycle and high
temperature reactors for hydrogen generation. We have also contributed to
chapters of the INPRO document on guidance and methodology for assessment of
economics, safety and waste management. We strongly support international
cooperation through cooperative research and joint initiatives, as envisaged
under INPRO phase-2. India remains supportive of the IAEA fulfilling its statute
responsibilities, particularly the developmental and international co-operative
dimensions of nuclear energy.
The
Indian programme on the application of radioisotope and radiation in health,
agriculture, industry, hydrology, water management and environment for societal
benefit has a close match with several activities of the Agency. Our
experts thus take active part in all Agency activities.
As a founder member, we participate actively in RCA activities. Last
year, we had hosted 6
events in India. We have
also hosted 34 IAEA Fellows and Scientific visitors. I am glad to inform this gathering that the International
Union Against Cancer (UICC) selected the Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai for the
“Outstanding UICC Member organization” award for its outreach programmes
related to cancer control. PACT programme drawn up by the Secretariat deserves
our fullest and speedy support.
Mr.
President,
A special event on “New Framework for Utilisation of Nuclear Energy in
the 21st Century: Assurances
of Supply and Non-Proliferation” is currently in progress as a part of this
General Conference. Out of the
current fleet of 443 nuclear power reactors operating in the world, less than
half are under IAEA safeguards. Even
in this scenario and with a very slow growth of nuclear power in the last two
decades, the volume of human and financial resources needed for implementation
of IAEA safeguards have constituted a large fraction of the resources available
to the Agency. Now with anticipated rapid growth in demand for nuclear power,
mainly in the developing countries, cost effective safeguards are essential so
that the safeguard system does not itself become an hindrance to the development
of nuclear power while at the same time providing the necessary assurances in
terms of verification. India therefore feels it is necessary to look for
institutional as well as technological solutions with enhanced proliferation
resistance along with an assured fuel supply, without adversely affecting
long-term sustainability of nuclear fuel resources.
Thorium offers a very important and attractive solution from this
perspective and we urge the Agency and its members to give serious consideration
of the possibilities offered by the Thorium route.
Over
the years India has developed advanced capabilities in the utilization of
thorium, as a part of its strategy to enhance nuclear capacity through a closed
nuclear fuel cycle that would enable timely deployment of its thorium reserves.
We are convinced that this is a viable and sustainable strategy for India’s
and global long term energy security. Seen in the context of nuclear power
becoming a significant fraction of energy supply in a world where everyone is
assured of a minimum of 5000 KWh of energy in a year, entire global Uranium if
used in once through mode would last only a few tens of years. Even with a
shorter term perspective of deployment of a proliferation resistant nuclear
energy system that could address the need for incineration of available surplus
plutonium, the use of thorium, in reactors using proven technologies, presents a
vastly superior option as compared to other options based on fast reactors. In
my presentation at the special event tomorrow I would elaborate on this aspect
further. I will urge the IAEA to
give a further boost to its activities that could lead to an early expansion of
global reach and volume of deployment of nuclear energy, using thorium based
fuel cycle as one of the important routes to reach the goal.
We have been constantly
reminding the Agency of the need to maintain a balance between its promotional
and safeguards related activities.
The risk arising out of global climate change and rapid depletion of
global fossil fuels is real and substantial. We believe that future enhancement
of the share of nuclear energy as a clean energy source is possible and feasible
in a manner that satisfies the imperatives of nuclear safety and security.
Let us therefore resolve that we would pool our scientific and
technological abilities together in finding holistic solutions so that the next
50 years are seen as the golden period of nuclear energy development in meeting
global energy needs. As a responsible state with advanced nuclear technological
capabilities, India is prepared to play its part in this glorious endeavor.
Thank you Mr. President.