India has sought concerted international efforts to prevent terrorists from gaining access to radiological materials and technology.
In his maiden address to the United Nations General Assembly, Indian delegate former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed asked the international community to give high priority to development of global security culture and offered it full support to achieve the goal.
He said global efforts are needed to prevent terrorists from accessing radiological materials.
In accordance with its commitment and record as a responsible State with advanced nuclear technology, he said India is prepared to supplement international efforts for promotion of peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
India believes that closed fuel nuclear cycle is essential if nuclear power is to make sustained contribution at a large enough scale necessary to meet global energy needs, Sayeed said on Monday while intervening in the debate on the report of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog body of the United Nations.
India believes that reprocessing and recycling of nuclear fuel is essential not only for this purpose but also for the reduction of long term radio toxicity and security implication of disposal of spent fuel as such, he said.
"Thorium offers an excellent matrix for efficient burning of surplus plutonium with a much greater degree of proliferation resistance and very low minor actinide burden," he told the delegates, citing the Indian expertise in the area.
The IAEA report noted that of the 26 nuclear power plants under construction, 15 are located in Asia. In India, with the TAPS-4 achieving criticality on March 6, 2005 and Taps-3 on May 21, 2006, there are 16 operating power plants, with 7 under construction.
Emphasizing that the demand for nuclear power is growing in step with growing global energy needs, Sayeed said the exigencies of economic development, the finite nature of fossil fuels and concerns linked both to their prices as well as their impact on global climate change add to the attractiveness of nuclear power.
"The immense energy potential of nuclear fuels, readily available and deployable technologies and the safety and productivity record of nuclear power over the past 20 years are likely to help maintain an upward trend in the demand for nuclear energy," the People's Democratic Party patron told the 192-member
Referring to the expertise developed by India, the Mufti said it considers a closed nuclear fuel cycle of crucial importance for its well established three stage nuclear power programme with its long term objective of tapping India's vast thorium resources.
In the front end of the cycle, our programme is providing inputs to the indigenous Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) phase. In the back end of the fuel cycle, re-processing of PHWR spent fuel has enabled India to successfully operate a Fast Breeder Test Reactor for two decades and launch a commercial Fast Breeder Programme, he told the delegates.
The technology of reprocessing irradiated thorium fuel has been developed and U-233 recovered so far utilised to fuel a small reactor, he said.
India has been an active participant in the activities of the Agency under the International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles, and has applied the INPRO methodology for analyzing nuclear systems for hydrogen generation.
Indian experts, Sayeed said, have also contributed to the work of the International Desalination Advisory Group (INDAG). "We have offered to share our experience and identify future areas of work in nuclear desalination."
India, he said, believes that IAEA should continue to pay special attention to the promotion and development of nuclear energy, especially in areas of the world where developmental needs and aspirations remain unfulfilled. Appreciating the setting up by the agency Nobel Cancer and Nutrition Fund, the Mufti noted the Indian offer to contribute a recently developed cobalt 60 Tele Therapy Machine (Bhabhatron) for the Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy.
"The emerging possibility for expanding civil nuclear cooperation between India and the international community would supplement our domestic efforts to meet the developmental aspirations of our people through additional energy inputs," he added.
