Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Mar 23: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said here that the Government has laid down before itself, the target to “triple” its nuclear capacity by the year 2024 and that, soon after the formation of the Modi Government in 2014, it was resolved to achieve this target in the next ten years.
Speaking in the Parliament, Dr Jitendra Singh said, in the last two years, there has been a fast-track movement in the expansion and progress of nuclear projects and this has also began to show visible results. He said, very recently in January this year, a Cabinet Meeting headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi also approved of a provision for Advanced Heavy Water Reactor.
Describing India as the biggest source of Thorium in the world, Dr Jitendra Singh said, it is a matter of pride that the world’s only reactor using Uranium-233 processed from Thorium is in India. It is named “Kamini” and is located in Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu. Currently, he said, after having completed first-stage, we are on the verge of entering the second stage of Thorium related programme and subsequently, the entire programme will be complete in the third stage.
Under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Dr Jitendra Singh said, a number of path-breaking decisions have been taken in the last three years, which have given a boost to India’s Nuclear Programme. For example, he said, Union Cabinet last year approved the proposal to have Joint ventures in Nuclear Programme with participation from government PSUs from other sectors, as a result of which, their financial resources combined with the technical know-how of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) can help in setting up of new plants.
For the first time, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the nuclear programme has been brought to North India and in the last two years, the work has started on nuclear plant at Gorakhpur in Haryana. At the same time, he said, Uranium exploration work is being carried out at new locations including those like Meghalaya in Northeast, which had hitherto never been explored.
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