There is a vital linkage between the availability of energy and future growth in India. The irony is that it is facing resistance to extract Uranium and convert it to yellow cake, to fuel nuclear power reactors to produce energy, from recently discovered deposits at Domiasiat in Meghalaya. The project, code-named ‘Doctor’, envisages mining for a period between 25 and 30 years. Since its inception around the mid 1990s, the project has been delayed by controversies. Inhabitants complain that exposure to radiation has made them vulnerable to several diseases, although there is no official record of such problems. The opposition came from student organisations, local population and environmentalists on the grounds that Uranium mining is leading to high levels of asthamatic and carcinogenic diseases. 

  Besides, the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) has argued that mining will displace 30,000 people. Another allegation made by the Khasi Students Union alleges that mining will contaminate local water resources. Scientists from the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) have refuted these allegations. The Radiation Protection Section of the Bhaba Atomic Research Center (BARC) dismissed the possibility of any health problems. Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) officials have categorically rejected these allegations and promised to provide healthcare facilities and employment to the local people. An economic development package, including 85 percent jobs, roads and bridges assured by UCIL has failed to deter the opposition. 

  During 1991, the atomic mineral division of the DAE had discovered Uranium in the West Khasi Hills. The UCIL found that the area (6 sq. miles) in the Domiasiat deposit contains about 10,000 tonnes of Uranium. The deposit is the largest, richest, near-surface and low-cost sand stone-type Uranium deposit discovered in India thus far. Uranium mining is also proceeding in Jaduguda, Bhatin and Narwa-Pahar (all situated in the Singhbhum district of Jharkhand). Natural Uranium is processed into yellow cake and sent to the Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) in Hyderabad, for fabrication into fuel for the 12 Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR). 

  The installed capacity for power generation in India is 101,630 MW at present, of which thermal plants account for 80 percent, hydro- electric plants contribute 16 percent, nuclear power plants 3 percent and wind power 1 percent. The current sources of energy are coal, oil, and natural gas. They will last for a while but cause significant environmental damage for hundreds of years. India’s net imports of crude oil are 74.1 million tonnes per annum. For domestic consumption, India depends on the whims of the oil producing countries. To absorb oil shocks (like in 1973 and early 1980s) and to avoid the security threat to pipelines, India must find a suitable substitute for oil. 

  Nuclear energy is likely to be cheap, as the only investment is in reactors. Nuclear power plants (NPP) outsmart thermal power plants (TPP) as the actual production-hours of energy per year (Plant Load Factor) is more. Moreover, fission of an atom of Uranium produces 10 million times the energy produced by the combustion of an atom of carbon from coal. Currently, nuclear power generates about 17 percent of the world’s electricity, which is slightly less than the global hydropower generation. 

  Nuclear energy can help meet the world’s energy needs without affecting the environment. Reliance on nuclear energy reduces the green house gases (GHG) emissions that cause climate change. Every 22 tonnes of Uranium used for electricity saves the emission of about one million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) from coal. India, after 10 years, will join the US as a major GHG emitting country, if it continues with its present consumption pattern. 

  India must accelerate its nuclear capability by extracting uranium from Meghalaya and not succumb to the pressure of self-claimed environmentalist or student organisations. Apart from environmental benefits, the nuclear science technologies contribute immensely to the socio- economic development of a country. The emergence of nuclear agriculture, nuclear medicine, elimination of rinder pest, food irradiation, mineral exploration and mining and many others would help India tremendously. To achieve the objective of ‘Mission 2012- Power for All’, India must utilize its nuclear program for peaceful uses of nuclear energy, rather than making the bomb.