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Indian govt makes passionate appeal to save US nuclear deal
New Delhi (AFP) July 21, 2008 India's government, which risks losing power over a nuclear accord with the US, on Monday urged lawmakers to back the pact, saying it is indispensable to the country's energy security. Communist partners of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's coalition withdrew support earlier this month to protest the deal, and forced a special two-day parliamentary session in a bid to vote out the government. "Is this an issue on which the government should be brought down?" Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said at the start of the stormy debate in parliament's 545-seat lower house, which will vote on a trust motion Tuesday. He dismissed allegations that the Congress party-led government had kept the communists in the dark over the deal, which it signed with Washington in 2005. Mukherjee -- one of the architects of the US-India deal -- said the government was merely trying to "solve our problems of the future," saying it was India's only hope of avoiding a gigantic energy crisis. The country's infrastructure is already creaking under the strain of a booming and increasingly urbanised population, and power cuts are frequent in all major cities. "In the short term India's energy deficit will total around 145,000 megawatts by 2030 and this will go up to 412,000 megawatts by 2050," said Mukherjee. India's coal deposits are rapidly running out in the absence of alternative fuel to fire up domestic power stations, he said, adding the country could be forced to import 1.6 million tonnes of coal every year from 2050. "If we start our work on nuclear power right now then our projected energy deficit will be reduced to 7,000 megawatts by 2050," he said, admitting India's hunt for hydro power and uranium supplies from domestic sources was proving to be difficult while the quality of coal was inferior. The communists withdrew their support after the government rejected their ultimatum and approached the UN atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), for a waiver, a key step required to implement the pact. Mukherjee defended the move, saying: "Our friends in Russia and even France cannot help us if we don't first go to the IAEA and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to operationalise this deal." "If I don't have a passport, I cannot get a visa, and if I don't have a visa, I cannot travel. Both the IAEA and the NSG are our passport to nuclear richesse," he said. Nuclear energy at India's 17 existing reactors currently account for less than four percent of power generation capacity of around 145,000 megawatts. India's coal reserves of 248 billion tonnes are expected to be exhausted in four decades at the current rate of consumption, according to available government figures. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
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New uranium leak discovered at French nuclear site
Paris (AFP) July 18, 2008French nuclear safety authorities and nuclear giant Areva admitted Friday, after a second nuclear power plant leak in as many weeks, that security for nuclear power in the country needs revamped. |
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