With the completion of Kaiga-3, there are now 17 nuclear power reactors in operation with a total installed capacity of 4120 MW. On completion of the reactors under construction, there will be 23 reactors in operation with an installed capacity of 7,280 MW.

Earlier, addressing BARC staff and scientists, Kakodkar said that the three stage development programme was “very much on course” but the nuclear properties of thorium did not permit a “growth in power generation capacity.”

He added: “Self-reliance did not mean isolating ourselves but rather keeping several options, including the ‘do it yourself’ option, ready at hand so that the country is not subject to vulnerabilities of any kind,” he said.

“Our current challenge is to augment uranium production to match the needs of operating power reactors,” he said, pointing out that opening of new mines was a time-consuming activity. Efforts of the last 6-7 years, he said, had resulted in opening of new mines at Turamdih and Banduhurang in Jharkhand and starting of a new uranium processing mill at Turamdih.

Meanwhile, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger today warned that a delay in the deal could impact prospects of such a cooperation as the critics would be “better organised” two years later. He said India must implement the deal “for its own reasons” and not “as a favour to” or “under pressure” from the US.

If the agreement is not completed during the tenure of the Bush administration, “the new administration in 2009 will negotiate a new agreement and submit it for Congress’s approval and the same steps would repeat,” Kissinger told a seminar in New Delhi. “Those opposed to the deal would be better organised two years from now,” he said.

... contd.