Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire: Asian nations need to cooperate in nuclear field

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Asian nations need to cooperate in nuclear field

As a whopping 271 nuclear power reactors are being planned in Asia, there is an urgent need for cooperation among countries of the region to the meet the various technological and infrastructural challenges and proliferation concerns, a top industry official said here Monday. 'The Asian nations have to face the challenges like choice of technology and reactor size, setting up acceptable infrastructure, developing human resource, developing safety and quality culture, gaining pubic confidence, setting up regulatory framework, management of spent fuel and instituting nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear security framework,' said S.K.Jain, chairman and managing director of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL)

India's strength lies in building small and modular reactors (SMR) an idea that is being discussed in the nuclear world. The country can export 220 MW pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR) to friendly countries. 'The strength of Asia in the nuclear domain includes human resources, lowest cost, well developed industry and allied infrastructure and development of end-to-end technologies in the nuclear power field,' Jain added. According to him, 493 reactors are being planned and proposed in the world, of which 271 are in Asia. Leading the Asian pack is China that has planned 153 reactors followed by India with 60 reactors, Vietnam (14), Japan(13), South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand (six each), Kazakhstan and Pakistan (four each), Bangladesh (two), Armenia, Malaysia and North Korea (one each)