Nuclear Energy - Its Significance and The Indian Scenario.

Human beings took their first steps towards establishing their supremacy over nature as soon as they began to think. Then rolled out a series of discoveries, inventions and innovations.

A point we all will agree on is that human development touched its loftiest peak when we realised the tremendous significance of energy. We noticed that energy is the fundamental currency of this universe. Everything what happens in the world is the expression of flow of energy in one of its forms.

Well, we then got a hint that improving lifestyle means mastering energy. Don't you believe this? As soon as we starting controlling energy in the form of electricity, we attained our biggest breakthrough of development. Whole of the human history can be divided as before the controlled usage of electricity and after the controlled usage of electricity, and it is needless to prove that there was a difference of an era before and after.

But here's the catch. Our planet is undergoing a rapid population boom. Every human being wants to be materially prosperous. That means that human being must consume more and more energy. Hence, we are experiencing energy crisis because of increasing population as well as increasing living standard of humans. 

On one end we need to drastically increase our energy generation and on the other end the conventional sources of energy are depleting and may be exhausted by the end of the century or the beginning of the new century.

Therefore we have already started exploring creative ways to harness energy apart from relying on fossil fuels which are exhaustible as well as extremely toxic.

The forefront heros of non-conventional, renewable and clean energy sources are wind, hydro and solar sources. They enjoy the global limelight because of their very cheeky ways to generate energy. The good news is that they recieve their deserved public attention and are gradually embraced internationally.

 Germany for example, relies on wind and solar for more than 50% of its energy generation. Scotland harnesses 85% of its energy needs by wind farms. India too, is very ambitious about its renewable projects.

Very good. But the flip side of the coin is a very simple universal fact that a windmill can generate electricity only as long as winds blow over 15km/h or the sun keeps shining on the solar panels. They aren't just enough to satsify our all commercial requirements of energy.

Generating energy from windmills is fantastic. It has a very low carbon footprint. But building wind turbines in large scale on the other hand, release a huge amount of CO2 - from smelting and manufacturing humongous steel bodies to produce its aluminium blades. Moreover, even a well-built solar panel lasts hardly upto 20-25 years and needs to be discarded. Not only are they extremely fragile, but contains toxic wastes that of lead, cadmium, chromium etc. which are hard to get disposed. I'm not saying that they are not fit to exist, but just that they too have their own limitations.

At this point comes the protagonist of our blog - Nuclear energy. The story of nuclear energy unravels many wonders.

 We all know that matter consists of minute particles known as atoms. When I firsr heard about Einstein's E=MC² formula, I wondered that if mass and energy are interrelated, isn't mass just concentrated, densed packets of energy? Then I found out that it was true.

Atoms represent enormous concentration of bindinh energy. Splitting up a single gram of Uranium 238 generates millions of watts of electricity.

Nuclear fission means splitting of an atom into large fragments. Uranium is the only naturally occuring element in which fusion occurs easily. With a complete combustion or fission, 1kg of Uranium 235 produces 23,000,000 KWh of energy. On the other end, 1kg of coal produces only about 6-8 KWh energy. Hence, clearly Uranium generates 2-3 million times the energy equivalent of coal.

To continuosly generate electricity out of fission means to continously split atoms. Therefore a chain reaction must be sustained. It is very pleasing to know that our scientists have been able to maintain a large scale fission chain reaction.

 However there are some limitations in the use of nuclear energy namely high capital cost of nuclear power plants, limited availability of raw materials, difficulties associated with disposal of radioactive waste and shortage of well trained personnel to handle the nuclear power plants. The prerequisite to begin nuclear energy generarion is perfectly controlled chain reaction of Uranium. Nuclear fission certainly involves major risks.

 However it is sometimes suggested that nuclear fusion has better prospects. Nuclear fusion is fundamentally different from nuclear fission. It involves fusing together of light atoms rather than the breaking apart of heavy ones.

Scientists are trying to produce energy by utilising fusion diffusion process. Fusion has an added advantage that there is no waste material. Aso, unlike uranium, which is  expensive to mine and concentrate, hydrogen  is easily available so the production of energy become successful commercial. From controlled fusion process, we can have an unlimited source of energy at our disposal.

The Indian Scenario

As early as 1901, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) had recognised India as potentially having significant deposits of radioactive ores, including pitchblende, uranium and thorianite. In the ensuing 50 years, however, little to no effort was made to exploit those resources.

By 1939, Meghnad Saha, the Palit Professor of Physics at the University of Calcutta, had recognised the significance of the discovery of nuclear fission, and had begun to conduct various experiments in his laboratory related to nuclear physics. In 1940, he incorporated nuclear physics into the university's post-graduate curriculum.

In the same year, the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust sanctioned funds for installing a cyclotron at the University of Calcutta, but various difficulties likely related to the war delayed the project. In 1944, Homi J. Bhabha, a distinguished nuclear physicist who had established a research school at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, wrote a letter to his distant cousin J. R. D. Tata, the chairman of the Tata Group. He requested funds to establish a research institute of fundamental physics, "with special reference to cosmic rays and nuclear physics." The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) was inaugurated in Mumbai the following year.

Following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945, R.S. Krishnan, a nuclear physicist who had studied under Norman Feather and John Cockroft, and who recognised the massive energy-generating potential of uranium, observed,

"If the tremendous energy released from atomic explosions is made available to drive machinery, etc., it will bring about an industrial revolution of a far-reaching character." He further noted, however, the difficulties in harnessing nuclear power for peaceful usage, "...a great deal more research work is needed before atomic power can be put to industrial use."

In March 1946, the Board of Scientific and Industrial Research (BSIR), under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), set up an Atomic Research Committee under Bhabha's leadership to explore India's atomic energy resources and to suggest ways to develop and harness them, along with establishing contacts with similar organisations in other nations.

On 23 March 1948, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru introduced the Atomic Energy Bill in the Indian Parliament, and it was subsequently passed as the Indian Atomic Energy Act. The Act granted sweeping powers to the central government over nuclear science and research, including surveying for atomic minerals, the development of such mineral resources on an industrial scale, conducting research regarding the scientific and technical problems connected with developing atomic energy for peaceful purposes, the training and education of the necessary personnel and the fostering of fundamental research in the nuclear sciences in Indian laboratories, institutes and universities.

On 3 August 1948, the Atomic Energy Commission of India (AEC) was established and made separate from the Department of Scientific Research, with Bhabha as its first chairman.

India's domestic uranium reserves are small and the country is dependent on uranium imports to fuel its nuclear power industry.

In recent years, India has shown increased interest in thorium fuels and fuel cycles because of large deposits of thorium (518,000 tonnes) in the form of monazite in beach sands as compared to very modest reserves of low-grade uranium (92,000 tonnes).

Nuclear energy is the fifth-largest source of electricity for India. India also stands at seventh position in terms of the number of nuclear reactors, with over 23 nuclear reactors in 7 power plants across the country which produces 6780 MW of nuclear power.

This, dear friends, was the story of nuclear energy and its Indian scenario!

"It is absolutely in the interest of India to have a vigorous school of research in fundamental physics,for such a school forms the spearhead of research not only in less advanced branches of physics but also in problems of immediate practical application.

If much of the applied research done in India today is disappointing or of very inferior quality it is entirely due to the absence of sufficient number of outstanding pure research workers who would set the standard of good research.

Moreover, when nuclear energy has been successfully applied for power production in say a couple of decades from now, India will not have to look abroad for its experts but will find them ready at hand."

- Dr. Homi J Bhabha, the architect of development of Nuclear Energy in India.

Thanks,

Daksh Parekh.