India should press on nuclear energy, says Tanaka

Singapore, Oct 31: India should go ahead with its civil nuclear power projects to balance against the impact of high oil and gas prices, a former senior official of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said today.

"Already India is moving towards more cooperation with Japan, US for introducing civil technologies.

"Also, India has a huge urban setting so using nuclear power for providing urban situation as well as industry... is very efficient and effective way," Nabuo Tanaka, former executive director of the IEA, told reporters here.

"India already has lots of technology. But, just Like China, these big emerging economies inevitably will depend on nuclear power," he stressed while speaking on the sidelines of the Singapore Energy Summit.

Tanaka ruled out cheaper oil days, saying he expected crude oil prices to range between USD 70 and USD 80 per barrel in the longer term, while the renewable energies development has slowed down due to the unpredictable global economic growths.

A higher USD 100 per barrel oil price would derail the global economy with pressure on energy costs.

Large oil and gas consuming countries should note this and give importances to alternative options, he said.

India plans to set up 40,000-megawatt of nuclear power plants by 2030, but these has been slowed down following the Fukushima incident.

Similarly, China, as an emerging economy, would also have to go the nuclear way, said Tanaka.

He also highlighted that the Japanese have learned lessons from the Fukushima nuclear plant incidents and were now working on much safer approach, especially new reactors.

Tanaka said he expected Japan to restart its idle nuclear plants next year as its option of non-nuclear energy would be too costly.

"Logically speaking, if Japan is not restarting nuclear power, it means Yen 3 trillion more expenditure on fuels," he said.

"Do we just waste Yen 3 trillion for just idling the nuclear power? This is irrational choice. So I think, logically speaking, it should start fairly quickly, towards early next year."

PTI