Kakodkar pleaded that “we must conduct ourselves in a manner consistent with strategic wisdom” and makes the point that this column has been making all along of uranium being in short supply and thorium aplenty — underlining the need for a fast-breeder reactor. This one too, has a history. Rajiv Gandhi, who had a straight vision, made some of us negotiate with the Soviets over light-water reactors in 1987. By the late ’90s, the Russians made it clear that they would stand by these agreements. The Koodankulam reactors become a major part of the design of creating 20000 MWs of capacity. This idea, of minimising uranium imports, too has its detractors, ranging from the Left to those who would undermine India’s quest for self-reliance in energy. My friend Deb Bose, former chair of the Bengal planning board, has criticised my calculations on the first-of-a-kind fast-breeder by taking historical costs, underplaying energy transportation costs and going by historical efficiency parameters. I do not agree with the view that nobody learns from experience; besides, there have been periods when nuclear plants ran at near full capacity and made money. The other critics are in fact in the government, in senior advisory capacities. They deny that India has an experimental fast-breeder reactor which works and has been synchronised with the grid. They want import of uranium and that’s about all. It is wrong; and the new government will need to scotch both the Luddites and these Cassandras and show the guts to move along. 

... contd.