VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
Issue: 207 Date: 26.06.2017
Contents:
1. Develop Solar Power & Other Eco-Friendly Means For
Electrical Power Generation In Place Of Nuclear
2. BCCI Should Have Sacked Virat Kohli From The
Captaincy After The Champions Trophy Final
3. Ram Nath Kovind's Candidature For President
4. Cow Sanctuaries A Bad Idea
Develop
Solar Power & Other Eco-Friendly Means For Electrical Power Generation In
Place Of Nuclear
Solar power prices have dropped to Rs. 2.44 per unit which is almost 40% lower than the equivalent lowest unit prices for electrical power generated from coal. For a sunshine rich country with vast areas of barren land like India, solar power is the answer to generating cheap power. This method also happens to be eco-friendly. In fact the downward trend of solar prices are likely to continue. This may not be at the rate at which it has happened in the last 5 years. This was the period when prices of solar panels had fallen dramatically because of technology changes and economies of scale. Over the next few years the emphasis of manufacturers of solar power systems is to try and reduce costs of the Rest of System (RoS). RoS relates to the other components of the system apart from the solar panels. Thus the further drop in prices for solar power may be more gradual. When this is the situation with one of the most eco-friendly sources of power, India is unfortunately pursuing the nuclear route.
Lately the government has announced that it will implement 10
nuclear power plants with indigenous technology at various locations across
India each of 700MW capacity. The reliance on our own technology is good since
one can say it is proven considering the long history that we have in nuclear
power generation with technology having evolved from BARC. But there is an
issue here and that is while world-over reactors are being made
currently to deliver power in excess of 1000MW, typically 1200-1400MW, we
are limiting ourselves to 700MW. This has an impact on cost per unit of
electrical power being generated. Though Indian energy costs from indigenous
nuclear power plants is the envy world over with comparable plants around the
world, there is still the element of economies of scale which give dramatic
reduction in costs once plant capacities cross 1000MW. Not only that nuclear
energy because of its linkage with national security in India has always had a
curtain drawn across its operations and therefore the costs of operation and
from that the derived costs of tariff are very suspect. Apart from this the
nuclear power reactors that are currently in operation and the ones newly
proposed will need expensive imported uranium fuel. This fuel is also difficult
to obtain and therefore the continued running of our nuclear power plants will
be suspect. The bottleneck in getting access to regular supplies of uranium
fuel from around the world has been the entry of India into the NSG. China has
been consistently stonewalling this membership including at the latest meeting
last week in Berne, Europe. Russia continues to be the only reliable
supplier of uranium fuel because of the good relations that India enjoys with
Russia and the Indo-Soviet treaty. The support to India’s nuclear program by
Russia is also considering their interests in the Kayamkulam nuclear complex
expansion. It is to be noted here that the existing Russian plants at
Kayamkulam are all above 700MW and even the new ones likely to come are in
excess of 1000MW. So if Russia is doing things right, then India is either
obviously doing something wrong or it has a technological limitation to go
beyond 700MW. This latter limitation needs to be addressed. The approach of the
nuclear establishment in India has earlier always been - We know what is good
for this country and if we say it is good enough for us, then it is good enough
for us. Such kind of bullheadedness will not work anymore and we need to be
more open in the working of our civilian nuclear programs.
As raised earlier the continued foreign
dependence of uranium fuel has to be broken for reasons stated above. We have
the largest deposits of thorium in the world from which plutonium can be made. Why
our reactors cannot use thorium or products derived from it like Plutonium or
Uranium is something that needs to be answered? Additionally we have been
working on fast breeder reactors which uses plutonium as fuel and therefore one
is unable to understand why we are not pushing through with this technology
breakthrough since then with the above two options we become independent of our
sourcing issues for nuclear fuel and consequent linkage with the constraints
imposed by the NSG, NPT etc. etc.
At the time when India was announcing its
plans to construct another 10 x 700 MW reactors of its own technology the world
was moving in the opposite direction. India's commitment to go ahead with this
large scale expansion was the first initiative anywhere in the world in
the area of nuclear energy since the Fukushima disaster in Japan. Countries
like Germany, Italy and others have been eschewing the use of nuclear clear
technology. At this moment India is the only country which is jumping on the
bandwagon of nuclear power in a big way. Projects in the US and Finland have
all been running behind schedule with major cost overruns relating to the
reactors of Toshiba- Westinghouse and the French co., Areva. In
fact Westinghouse with difficulties on its US based projects in its deep
South has filed for bankruptcy proceedings. These Cos. were supposed to be
major players in the expansion of India's nuclear power portfolio with their
plants. However the triangulation issues related to the NSG, NPT and the
non-activation of the Indo-US nuclear deal has put the spanner in the works in
these foreign power plants coming to India.
Therefore given this uncertain scenario would it not be wiser
for us in the interim to concentrate on solar power considering that they have
a shorter gestation period than nuclear power plants and where the costs per
unit of electrical power are also lower. Moreover they are safer and we will
avoid the risks of nuclear disasters which may prove to be very harmful to the
high concentrations of population that we have living near the sites of the
proposed nuclear plants.
BCCI Should Have Sacked Virat Kohli From The
Captaincy After The Champions Trophy Final
BCCI is continuing with the personality cult culture in
supporting Virat Kohli over Anil Kumble in the should-we-say celebrated spat
but 'no spat' between the two considering they have not been on speaking
terms for the last 6 months as reported in the media. Just for blowing the
match against Pakistan in the Champions Trophy final Virat should have been
sacked from the captaincy. He could according to his choice have been part of
the team and looking at his age he would have capitulated to the BCCI decision.
Ashwin is up to the captaincy and could have easily taken over the reins with
Rahane as vice-captain. Alternately if there was even an iota of
professionalism in Virat he should have himself resigned for losing the final.
Aggression is fine but refusing to understand the aspect of a big occasion and
looking at what the team needs does not speak of a mature head on the young
man's shoulders. In contrast in the Champions Trophy final Virat put every one
in the team both batsmen and bowlers andhimself to needless pressure. This
comment is without taking anything away from Pakistan's
excellent all-round performance. By letting Virat off the hook the BCCI is
allowing the one player albeit the captain to dictate terms.This is not likely
to do any good to Indian cricket and will only lead to more such issues with
Virat himself and/or the other players as time goes by. As for Kumble he
is well-regarded in the cricketing fraternity and apart from a rigorous
commitment to discipline and work-ethic, you cannot fault him. His contribution
to cricket is remembered and so will his stint as the Indian coach.
Ram Nath
Kovind's Candidature For President
Ram Nath Kovind's nomination as the NDA candidate for
President has less to do with his qualifications and stature for the post
except for the fact that he is a Dalit. The NDA is reducing the appointment of
the President to just deriving political mileage out of it. The fact that upon
nomination Kovind decided to call on Narendra Modi at Delhi also indicates that
he is indeed obligated to the Prime Minister for having been nominated for the
post. One may say that this is nothing new since we have had heavily
politically obligated Presidents in V V Giri and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. But
Kovind one feels should have stayed away from the Prime Minister since if
elected as President in India's democratic pecking order, his position will be
higher than that of Modi. Like they say at that level it is all about subtle
signs and the atmospherics.
Cow
Sanctuaries A Bad Idea
It was reported in the newspapers that a Central Minister
ostensibly related to Animal Husbandry has said that the government will put up
cow sanctuaries on the lines of tiger sanctuaries across India. The minister
has probably no earthly idea why tigers need sanctuaries or where tigers stand
in relation to the jungle food chain. An interesting dichotomy will emerge if
the tiger sanctuaries are contiguous to cow sanctuaries and if the tigers stray
across and eat some cows because they are 'easy meat'. Then our present
dispensation would probably kill the tiger and with one cow at least already
dead, should we not have just killed the cow after its useful life. This would
have had at least saved the tiger. This concept of saving the cow and the
methods being mooted are absolutely illogical. We should be practical in these
matters. The cow is a domesticated animal and is best protected in a closed
environment like a gaushala or better still as part of a dairy. So
the minister should try and establish a co-operative movement or fit it in with
the existing dairy industry like call in the management of Amul, the
largest and most successful of the co-operative dairies in India, and have them
institute an integrated complex where cows apart from giving milk for
distribution are also looked after once their useful life is over with the
profits that they have generated in the past. If the scheme of mooting cow sanctuaries is to make money like Lalu
did with fodder in Bihar and the same thing was repeated in Maharashtra lately
when the amounts given for feeding cattle in camps during famine was siphoned
off by the officials and politicians, then there is nothing much to say.
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