Should India rethink Nuclear policy after Japan, Europe fallout?
Agencies

Posted: Tuesday, May 31, 2011
India may have to review its ambitious nuclear power policy as country after country in Europe is embarking on plans to shut down nuclear plants in the face of growing opposition from people, analysts said.

Germany today announced that it will phase out all its nuclear plants by 2022, a week after Switzerland decided to go non-nuclear by 2034.

The German environment minister Norbert Rottgen announced the government's decision to phase out nuclear plants after marathon talks with the green parties.

"It's definite," said Rottgen, emphasising that "the latest end for the last three nuclear power plants is 2022" and that there will be no clause for revision.

Germany, which is the biggest industrial power in the Western world, draws over a quarter of its energy from the nuclear plants.

The recent disaster at the Japanese nuclear plants, particularly the Fukushima plant, following the worst earth quake and tsunami has caused a wave of protests all over Europe where nuclear power appears to have lost its appeal.

In Germany, the collapse of the Fukushima plant has generated mass anti-nuclear protests.

In several European countries, opposition to the so-called "clean energy" from the nuclear power plants is rapidly growing forcing governments in Finland and Sweden to review their policy all over again, analysts said.

The UPA government must reconsider its ambitious nuclear power policy, said a Geneva-based analyst, saying that there is a danger that old plants that are being shut down in Europe could land up in India.

Following a waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group in 2009, India has already signed nuclear energy agreements with France, the US, Canada, Russia, UK, Kazakhstan, Namibia, Mongolia and Argentina.

India has said it plans to expand its atomic power-generation capacity tenfold by 2020 and the country is looked upon as an attractive destination for nuclear exports by other nations.

German Minister Rottgen announced today that the seven oldest reactors - which were taken offline for a safety review immediately after the Japanese crisis - will be permanently shut down.

The eighth plant, the Kruemmel facility in northern Germany, is not operational due to technical problems and would be shut down.

Six others would go offline by 2021 at the latest and the three newest by 2022, he said.