Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Apr 27: Responding to a Starred Question in Lok Sabha here today,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 that the reaction to a recent mishap in a Nuclear plant in Gujarat should not be alarmist and added that it would be more appropriate to describe it as only an “incident” and not an accident.
Supporting his contention with evidence, Dr Jitendra Singh said, International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), which has universally recognised parameters for measuring the magnitude of such nuclear events on the same pattern as the Richtor Scale for earthquakes, has rated the Gujarat incident at number 1 on the scale of 1 to 7 which only implies that it was simply an anomaly. The scale itself rates such an incident as an accident only when its magnitude falls between 4 to 7.
Replying to supplementary question by Congress MP, Gaurav Gogoi, Dr Jitendra Singh said, even though he is convinced that this incident should not create an unwarranted alarm, but an enquiry has been instituted, not at one but two levels, by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and also by Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB).
Citing figures, Dr Jitendra Singh said, it is rather a matter of pride that ever since the Narendra Modi Government took over, in the last two years, there has been a steep rise in the amount of nuclear power generation per year. For example, while in 2013-14 India produced 35,333 Million Units of nuclear energy, in 2014-15 and 2015-16, the figure went up to 37,835 and 37,456 Million units respectively, he added.
A singular contribution made by the present Government, Dr Jitendra Singh said, is that we have also expanded India’s Nuclear Programme to such regions of the country where it was earlier not very much visible. In this regard, he cited the example of nuclear plant at Gorakhpur, Haryana started last year and added that more sites are being explored, for example, in Bhiwadi Haryana, Bulandshahr Uttar Pradesh, Dehradun Uttarakhand and Patiala Punjab.
Dr Jitendra Singh reiterated Modi Government’s resolve to triple India’s nuclear generation capacity in next ten years so that our nuclear capacity can serve the growing energy needs of the country.
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