Nuclear power offers multiple advantages, Indian scientist says

Nuclear power engineering is safer in comparison with power engineering based on subsoil resources, BelTA learned from Prodipto Ghosh, an honorable member of the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change of India.

“As a scientist I can say that nuclear energy has been used for 60 years already. Today we can compare risks of using nuclear power plants with risks of using other sources of energy. In comparison with other kinds of power generation, for instance, those using coal, gas, and oil, nuclear power is safer taking into account environmental damage and damage to human health per total number of work hours. Accidents are less frequent in nuclear power engineering and their total death toll is way smaller. It is confirmed by global statistics,” stressed the expert.

Prodipto Ghosh added that coal mines alone kill hundreds of people every year due to all kinds of accidents while air pollution caused by using fossil fuels kills more than one thousand people all over the globe every year.

“Naturally, peaceful nuclear energy is safer. I believe that advantages of using nuclear energy are huge: nuclear energy development can help countries, including India, resolve ecological problems, enable access to cheap energy, healthcare, and resolve sustainable development problems. Nuclear power plants cause no direct damage to the environment and release no greenhouse gases. Nuclear power plants do not need large-scale mining operations, which are vital if we use oil and gas. It seems to me that nuclear energy is one of the most acceptable, reliable, and purest forms of energy,” said Prodipto Ghosh.

The technologies used in nuclear power engineering are constantly improved. “Certainly, there are those, who associate nuclear power engineering with nuclear weapons, with Fukushima and Chernobyl, but it has to do a lot primarily with the negative influence of mass media. The global atomic industry has learned its lessons. Nuclear power plants become safer and safer,” added the expert.

In his time Prodipto Ghosh worked as a secretary of the Environment and Forests Ministry.

India was one of the first developing economies to start using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. India has been paying closest attention to projects aimed at using nuclear energy. The first nuclear power plant was built and commissioned in Tarapur, Maharashtra Province back in 1969.