A national convention on the "Politics of Nuclear Energy and Resistance" is being organized in Kanyakumar, India (June 4-6, 200). S. P Udayakumar sends the concept note on this convention.

Related Links
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Nuclear Energy in India: Feasible? Leaders, Partners and Clients
Kalpakkam's Forgotten People

For more details about the convention, please contact drspudayakumar@yahoo.com

Although the tentative ‘Indian Atomic Energy Commission’ was set up in August 1948 in the new and fledgling Department of Scientific Research, it was only on August 3, 1954 the fully-fledged Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was created under the direct control of the Prime Minister through a Presidential Order. The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) itself was established in the Department of Atomic Energy by a Government Resolution of March 1, 1958. Just three months after the DAE was established, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru unequivocally declared in a conference on ‘Development of Nuclear Power for Peaceful Purposes’: “We want to utilise atomic energy for generating electricity because electricity is most essential for the development of the nation.” 

It is pertinent to reflect on what the Indian nuclear establishment has accomplished in the past fifty years. In 1998-99 the country generated about 90,000 MW and almost all of this was thermal and hydropower and the share of nuclear power was an insignificant 1,840 MW -- a ridiculously low 2 per cent of the total energy production. Now it is hardly 3 per cent. The DAE failed to achieve their target of producing 10,000 MW power by the year 2000. 

The fact of the matter is most of the 14 units (two at Tarapur in western Maharashtra state, four at Rawatbhatta in western Rajasthan state, two at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu, two at Narora in northern Uttar Pradesh, two at Kakrapar in western Gujarat and two at Kaiga in southern Karnataka) are beset with technical problems.  Dr. B. K. Subbarao, a retired naval captain who is familiar with the Indian nuclear department, asserts that “the country's six nuclear power plants with 14 units are operating at low capacities.” A simple comparison of nuclear power projects with hydro and thermal power projects would show that nuclear energy is way too expensive and ineffective. If we consider the amount of money, time, energy, human and other resources that have gone into the nuclear institutions and their activities since 1948, we get a classic picture of inefficiency and incompetence.¹

Present Situation

The DAE envisages a grandiose three-stage nuclear energy program that could contribute to achieving the country’s energy security (or some people put it, energy independence). The first stage has seen the construction of a series of Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR). As breeder reactors (PFBR) mark the beginning of the second stage, thorium-fuelled reactors and Advanced Heavy Water Reactors (AHWR) will come up under the third stage. Ever since the finalization of the India-US nuclear deal and the subsequent nuclear suppliers group (NSG) clearance, India has embarked upon nuclear agreements and business deals with Russia, United States, France and Kazakhstan. Russia has signed a commercial deal with India to build four additional nuclear reactors (besides the two reactors that are being built) at Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu. The United States is sure to get a big chunk of India’s nuclear trade worth several billion dollars over the next two decades.

Areva of France has signed a pact with India and is engaged in discussions to set up two to six 1,650 MW European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) units at Jaitapur in Maharashtra and to supply life-time fuel for these reactors through its uranium mines located in Australia, Kazakhstan and Niger. The cost of one EPR is estimated at between $5.2 and 7.8 billion, but the final costs are subject to negotiation. The India-Kazakhstan agreement involves export of uranium from Kazakhstan for India’s civil nuclear program. Britain is also vying for nuclear business with India.

Nuclear business is a lucrative affair all over the world. Even more so in India! So much money has already been wasted on nuclear power projects and the current cash crunch is mainly due to nuclear power being very expensive, inefficient and capital intensive. So the top officials of the Indian nuclear establishment have expressed interest in inviting private investments (which has been set aside for the time-being). To reach their target of generating 20,000 MW power by the year 2020, the nuclear authorities say they need a whopping amount of Rs. 800 billion. So they are contemplating about amending the Indian nuclear laws in order to facilitate private participation in nuclear power generation and other assorted endeavours. What all this means is that while private companies make money with no responsibilities, the Indian taxpayers and the “ordinary citizens” will bear the cost of dealing with the nuclear waste, decommissioning the plants, environmental damages, public health issues and other dangerous consequences.

A highly populated country like India does have an increasing need for energy.  But then that energy has to be economical, sustainable and environment-friendly for the very same reason of over- and dense- population.  The country needs to spend less on energy because there are other pressing needs such as food security, water security, housing, health, education, transportation and so forth.  India cannot afford the “use and discord” strategy as in nuclear power projects for obvious reasons of limited land availability, future generation’s needs and so forth.  Its energy projects have to be environmentally-friendly because even a small incident can harm, hurt or kill a huge number of people. 

Nuclear Weapons

India’s ambitious nuclear program consists of not just nuclear power generation but also nuclear weapons project. Anil Kakodkar, AEC chairman, has proclaimed recently: “The international civil nuclear programme will be pursued without any compromise on domestic autonomy and on the pursuit of usage of nuclear energy for whatever purpose” (emphasis added, The Hindu, February 6, 2009). India's nuclear weapons program was started at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) in Trombay. In the mid-1950s India acquired dual-use technologies under the "Atoms for Peace" non-proliferation program. It aimed to encourage the civil use of nuclear technologies in exchange for assurances that they would not be used for military purposes. There was hardly any evidence in the 1950s that India had any interest in a nuclear weapons program. Under the "Atoms for Peace" program, India acquired a Cirus 40 MWt heavy-water-moderated research reactor from Canada and purchased the heavy water required for its operation from the United States. In 1964, India commissioned a reprocessing facility at Trombay and used it to separate out the plutonium produced by the Cirus research reactor. This plutonium was used in India's first nuclear test on May 18, 1974 which was described by the Indian government as a "peaceful nuclear explosion." 

Now India is believed to possess 45 to 100 nuclear weapons while Pakistan is said to have some 60 of them. According to a report in Jane's Intelligence Review, India's objective is to have a nuclear arsenal that is "strategically active but operationally dormant", which would allow India to maintain its retaliatory capability "within a matter of hours to weeks, while simultaneously exhibiting restraint." However, the report also maintains that, in the future, India may face increasing institutional pressure to shift its nuclear arsenal to a fully deployed status. Having thrown all the high moral principles such as non-proliferation, disarmament and abolition of nuclear weapons, India is being duped into a nuclear rivalry with Pakistan and China with possible arms races, militarism, poverty, misery, insecurity and underdevelopment. The nuclear power and bomb programs are going to increase the nuclear expenditure exponentially thereby diverting the scarce resources from the much-needed basic services for the poor.

‘Climate Change’ Claims

Although nuclear program is bandied about as the best answer for climate change, there is very little truth to that claim. As Professor Amory Lovins, one of the world’s most influential energy thinkers, puts it: “If climate change is the problem, nuclear power isn’t the solution. It’s an expensive, one-size-fits-all technology that diverts money and time from cheaper, safer, more resilient alternatives.”

It is indeed grossly misleading to claim that nuclear power does not produce greenhouse gases (GHG). In fact, mining and processing of uranium, building nuclear power plants with an enormous amount of cement and steel and long construction processes, decommissioning the power plants, handling the radioactive waste, caring for all the cancer patients, dealing with all other public health situations and all these procedures cause considerable climate-changing pollution.

As indicated earlier, nuclear power does not produce much of India’s energy mix. Even if we accept the DAE’s dreamy figures of electricity generation, we must understand that electricity is a small portion of our total energy use. Most importantly, nuclear power plants emit a lot of harmful radiation and radiation-producing wastes and sites that cause much damage to humans, natural resources, and the overall environment. It is not at all prudent to opt for radiation-pollution and DNA-change to answer the threats of GHG-pollution and climate-change.

New (Clear) Kid on the Block 

The nuclear establishment that has been lying low with insignificant power generation and secretive weapons production has become a major political player ever since the BJP-led government’s nuclear testing and weaponization in May 1998. With the actual and potential nuclear threats that India, Pakistan and the whole of South Asia have faced over the years, the importance of the nuclear estate in India has gone even further up. This new kid in the ‘political power’ block with a clear self-serving agenda is slowly gaining more and more political, military, economic and commercial strength and many more patrons and friends. 

The Indian state along with its nuclear hawks, almost all the political party leaders, the nuclear estate comprising scientists, technicians and bureaucrats, and the nuclear industry that consists of Indian corporations, MNCs, and other business houses form a kind of a profiteering nuclear conglomerate. Together they define national security, India’s science policy, the new energy paradigm, and the very future vision of the country. Without any transparency, accountability, parliamentary oversight or popular scrutiny and with unlimited funding, ‘sacred cow’ status, innocuous ‘advanced science and technology’ label, and the ‘national security’ jingoism, the DAE is an undemocratic and anti-people department. 

What makes it possible for the DAE to keep several ‘incidents’ and ‘accidents’ under wraps and to persist with the authoritarian tendencies and practices is the Atomic Energy Act 1962 that clearly undermines India’s democratic heritage too. The Atomic Energy Act 1962 has indeed become a potent weapon for the DAE officials to threaten and silence the opponents and critics and shun any public dissension to their plans and projects. Section 3 of the Atomic Energy Act 1962 enables the Central Government “to declare as ‘restricted information’ any information not so far published or otherwise made public” and “to declare as ‘prohibited area’ any area or premises” where “production, treatment, use, application or disposal of atomic energy or of any prescribed substance” is carried out. Leaping much further, section 18 (restriction on disclosure of information) restrains nuclear information sharing even more stringently. 

To make matters worse, the Supreme Court ruled in January 2004 that the Central Government had every right to maintain secrecy about nuclear installations and deny public information about these in the interest of national security, which was paramount. Although our Constitution guarantees us the right to information vide Article 19(1)(A), these are, according to the court, subject to reasonable restrictions in the interest of national security.  Rejecting a petition by the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) and the Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal for making public a government report on safety of nuclear installations, submitted by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) to the Delhi government in November 1995, the Court ruled that the petitioners were “not entitled” to get the document declared as “secret” by the Union Government under Section 18 of the Atomic Energy Act 1962.

It is important to note that the petitioners did not ask for any information about India’s nuclear arsenal or its storage site or anything like that but expressed a genuine concern that there was not enough safety precautions in nuclear power stations in the country and any accident could have a disastrous affect on human beings, animals, environment and ecology. The petitioners had moved the Supreme Court after the Bombay High Court had rejected their petition in January 1997. The petitioners had also raised doubt about the safety aspect with regard to disposal of nuclear waste.

The Atomic Energy Act 1962 allows arbitrary suppression of all information --patently unconstitutional, according to V.R. Krishna Iyer, a widely respected legal luminary in India. The DAE is easily one of our most secretive departments and has much to hide: uranium mining hazards in Jadugoda, excessive irradiation of power-plant workers, waste mismanagement, and numbers regarding explosive yields. When a former Captain B.K. Subba Rao questioned the DAE's nuclear sub (Advanced Technology Vessel) project, a spectacular Rs. 2,000 crore failure, he was charged in 1988 with spying with the ludicrous evidence of his IIT-Bombay Ph.D. thesis for “espionage” and jailed for 20 months--until fully exonerated by three different courts.

There is an added danger now that the DAE is looking into ways of making amendments in the Atomic Energy Act 1962 in order to have private participation in the future nuclear power programs. The latest word is that amendment to the act is under consideration at various levels. Once the amendment is passed in the Parliament, rich power barons could invest in the nuclear power program and reap high dividends while the Indian state would subsidize nuclear research, enrichment of fuels, disposal of nuclear wastes, decommissioning of plants etc. with public funds. Thus the Atomic Energy Act 1962 would facilitate the fusion of secretive state, careerist DAE and greedy capitalists for private profit and the fission of Indian citizens’ safety, health and futures for several generations to come.

Inherent Dangers and Pitfalls 

According to Anil Kakodkar, AEC chairman, India should set up 40,000 MW reactors by 2020 to meet its energy requirements and become energy-independent by 2050 (The Hindu, February 6, 2009). But this grandiose plan does not say how much money will be needed, who will foot the bill, and if a cost-benefit analysis will prove nuclear power worthwhile and indeed profitable for a “developing” like India. 

In the name of nuclear power generation, the country is being re-colonized with Russians, French and Americans operating nuclear power plants all over the country and poking their profit-seeking noses into other areas of our national life. These nuclear “East India Companies” cunningly incorporate local capitalists to safeguard their position. For instance, the Areva chief has said that talks are on with several Indian companies to manufacture parts for nuclear reactors for the local market and overseas (Business Line, February 5, 2009). These nuclear business deals are also intricately linked to nuclear weapons program, conventional weapons procurements, military deals and other devious things. 

Although power is the public face of the Indian nukedom, bomb is its real face. This strong linkage between power and bomb has to be acknowledged. The Indian nuclear weapons program that often legitimizes itself by pointing out the Chinese weapons and military threat has given rise to knee-jerk reaction in Pakistan. These two countries have embarked upon a large scale nuclear power generation in Pakistan. Thus massive production of nuclear energy for weaponization poses a major challenge in South Asia today.  This is bound to further create tension and conflicts leading to the acceleration of the arms race and militirization posing a severe threat to peace and security in the region. 

Uranium mining, thorium extraction and other such operations along with their socioeconomic, environmental and health impact on marginalized communities such as the tribals, dalits and fisherfolk in places like Jadugoda, Meghalaya, Hyderabad, and the coastal villages of Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala is another grave concern. The nuclearization of India also exhibits a blatant disregard to human rights of millions of people and the overall environment.  The land rights, water rights, right to life and livelihood are all seriously impeded by the nuclear estate and its institutions and agents. 

Call for a National Convention

Seeing the nuclear program just as a matter of science and technology, or economics, or national security or development is an ill-informed approach. When all is said and done, the nuclear program has environmental, health, safety, demographic, cultural and political sides to it. After all, nuclearism is a political ideology. It is slowly but surely seeping into the democratic fabric of the country. As a money-guzzling, secretive department with strategic calculations and environmental dangers, the nuclear estate abhors transparency, accountability and popular participation. As a totalitarian scheme with no room for dissent or debate, the nuclear estate shuns popular debate or democratic decision-making processes and sees the Indian citizens not as “energetic masters” of a democracy but as “energy slaves” of a brave new nuclear world.

Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister who single-mindedly spearheaded the India-US nuclear deal, had put it succinctly in his convocation address in the Indian School of Mines on June 12, 2000 (published in University News 38 (24), p.11): “Nuclear power programme which was initiated in the country more than 40 years back has not progressed as envisaged…the target of 20,000 MW fixed in 1970 has badly slipped… In many countries nuclear power has been down graded due to safety hazards…There is an urgent need to re-evaluate the role of nuclear power taking into account both relative costs as well as safety hazards.  It goes without saying that we need strong and autonomous regulatory authorities to check the safety measures in all our atomic power plants.  The atomic safety regulatory authority needs to be strengthened and made fully autonomous.” Ironically, this is the position we take now as Dr. Singh himself is trying hard to sell the money-guzzling, waste-producing, disease-causing and weapons-proliferating nuclear power to the Indian public.

In the light of the above situation and the overall dangerous threats the Indian nuclear estate and its power and bomb programs pose, it is high time we, all the anti-nuclear activists, organizations and movements across India, came together and discussed the socioeconomic-political, environmental and other consequences of nuclearism and charted out a national course of action to oppose the nuclearization of India’s national futures. Delineating the nature of nuclear politics in India and its implications to our national life, we need to develop a coherent strategy of resistance against the nuclear establishment and its projects.

We organized a Press Conference on “Nuclear Threat to India” on April 13, 2009 at Indian Women’s Press Corps, New Delhi and kicked off the national debate on the politics of nuclear energy and resistance that coincided with the election campaign to elect the 15^th Lok Sabha. Now that the new central government is in place, we organize the national convention on June 4-6, 2009 coinciding with the World Environment Day.