Dr A Gopalakrishnan on India US nuclear deal Part 1

[talkwing]

These guys (all of them former blah blah) belong to a bygone cold war era and have completely failed India in Thorium research.

[nissanguy123]

hmmm ... perhaps you could enlighten everyone by bringing out the fallacy in the arguments that these 'guys from a bygone era' are making !

incidentally to call the thorium research a failure in india would be extremely naive !

[talkwing]

that clearly deserves an elaborate answer, so to keep it short,

lets say i have worked in BARC and more specifically at Apsara.

[nissanguy123]

wow ... BARC really ?! ... then I am sure you will be able to give a really comprehensive rebuttal of the points put forth in the video ! :)

[talkwing]

Sure I can refute his points, but cannot get into the details of thorium, which was my main contention as I am bound by the official secrets act.

1. Energy supply should be domestic : The only real domestic fuel is the poor quality coal, though we have enough to supply us for 50-75 years we still import coal today. Why ? (clue:efficiency). Do you think we can sustain an 8% growth with domestic supply ?

to be cont..

[talkwing]

China is not self sufficient with fuel, neither is the united states (Texas and Alaska no rigging yet). Every one is heavily dependent on the middle east and south america. So this point of countries always looking for domestic supply is wrong.

2. Govt inefficiency: In approving alternate schemes. This BARC bum should be the last guy complaining about such inefficiency . Sure, the blockades should be removed and we should beat the horse of high ash bituminous coal harder. We are not asking

[talkwing]

for a complete replacement of our coal fuel, which in any case is not possible over and above the fact that we import 25 % of our coal needs from australia and new zealand.

3. Hydel (not discussed), so there is nothing for me to refute.

[talkwing]

4. Thorium research: 30 years is definitely not the time for "growth" of a technology, 30 years is 3 successive paradigm changes in a technology. This guy is claiming that is the rate of development is a blatant lie to the nation. If you get to visit BARC some way please do, you will see the paper work is as much as it was during the peak of license raj. Shifting blame is easy, this has become an ego issue between the older generation which is having there impractical pet projects closed ..

[nissanguy123]

good points all of them ! ... However ,

1. the speaker makes it clear (in the first 40sec of his talk) that he is attacking the premise that this deal will bring energy security for india and for this reason the deal 'must go through' !

Coal reserves are mentioned in this context of 'practical avenues' for becoming self sufficient in energy. -to be continued-

[nissanguy123]

.... while the economy is growing at 8+% the coal production has grown at around 4% (330Mt-430Mt for 1996-2003. Private industry (especially steel) have gone in for import because of this shortfall. The fact that India has to import high grade coal for power plants goes to show that research in this field has been neglected.

If energy security was infact such a priority for this govt. why are they not addressing this ? Surely this is a cheaper and better alternative for the country!-to be cont

[nissanguy123]

2. Inefficiency: sure BARC might be inefficient and full of red-tape, but that does not mean that the points they make are invalid! If BARC/IGCAR is inefficient then REFORM it! Isnt that better than paying billions to keep the american middle class employed !?

Or is the point here that IQ of an Indian is inversly related to the distance from India ? :) that indians in BARC etc are too stupid to solve the challenges ahead ? -to be continued-

[nissanguy123]

4. Obviously since you are ex-BARC i suppose you know your thorium from your uranium:) !! ... however, perhaps we should consider the state of indian industry and research in ALL fields at that time. comparing with progress in US in the same time would not be valid.

In addition, as layman, it seems that the thorium cycle attempted by India is markedly different from the molten salt reactors most research groups in the west are looking at ... am I right ? - to be contd-

[nissanguy123]

Finally ... I feel that the country should hold both the scientists as well as the govt. to do what they are supposed to! But valid objections MUST be answered and not just brushed aside or 'declared irrelevant' as the govt. is doing on this issue ! - fin -

PS: the 'wow' was a little tongue-in-cheek comment ... sorry about that ! :) PEACE !

[talkwing]

Finally there is nothing to "wow" about BARC and moreover my exposure to scientific aspects does not automatically make me an expert on energy production/consumption equations of the nation. My perspective has been that of an insider, though a short one.

[indiaknight]

carrot to china and stick to india, that is the policy of prakash karat and co. commies are the biggest enemies of india. commies in india should learn a lesson from the nationalist commies of china. chinese commies conquer tibet and continue to justify it. shame on indian commies who back stab their own country on china's instructions.

[SaveBarath]

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