Thiruvananthapuram: After his superannuation
as the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), top
nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar now plans to focus more on
research in building safer atomic power reactors.
Kakodkar, who relinquished his post on November 30 last
year, will continue to work at the Bhabha Atomic Research
Centre in Mumbai, a place where he had an illustrious 45-year
career.
"I am going to spend my time in BARC. Of the several
things I would like to do, thorium is my first interest," he
told reporters on the sidelines of the 97th Indian Science
Congress that concludes here today.
He said that besides utilisation of power generation,
there are large benefits of thorium that are not recognised in
the country.
"I would want to address several issues on thorium," he
said.
Kakodkar, who played a crucial role in getting India out
of the nuclear wilderness two years back, said designing
nuclear plants with in-built security features would rank high
among his priorities.
Such plants with in-built security features could be
fired by using thorium as part of the fuel mix, he said.
Kakodkar parried questions on the talks to reach an
agreement to reprocess nuclear spent fuel of American origin.
"I have relinquished my position. I have no comment to
offer on the issue," he said to a volley of questions.
"There is a competent team of senior officials addressing
these issues," Kakodkar said.
Earlier, summing up a panel discussion on energy,
Kakodkar said there was a need to augment exploration efforts
across the country for coal, hydrocarbons and uranium.
He said environment issues needed to be addressed while
developing coal and uranium resources as these are located in
dense forest areas.
He said technology development, particularly in areas of
solar and hydrogen energy, posed a great challenge to
scientists.
Another key area of concern was turning inventions and
discoveries in several laboratories into successful commercial
ventures, Kakodkar said.
-PTI
First Published: Friday, January 08, 2010, 00:28