While the Indo-US nuclear deal runs the risk of going into a limbo, the Chairman of the state-run Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL), Ramendra Gupta has said that to secure country’s future energy need, nuclear energy is the only option left.
He said that the existing coal reserves are limited for the next 40 to 50 years and with the mounting energy need and depleting reserves of fossil fuels, the nuclear energy is the only option left for getting clean energy, ANI said.
“Now in the long run, if they are not going in for nuclear energy we have no other option because we are not having enough. Even fossil fuel is not there with us. So, we are left with no other alternative except to go for nuclear power,“ he said.
However, he added that India should have a mix of all energy resources.
The government has set itself the target of producing 20,000 megawatts (MW) of nuclear power by 2020, so that its contribution reaches seven percent of the country’s energy requirements.
At present, nuclear power constitutes approximately 2.5 percent of India’s installed generation capacity of about 100,000 megawatts.
Most of the country’s power needs is met by thermal plants, which supply 72 percent of electricity, and hydroelectricity provide 24 percent of country’s energy needs.
The UCIL, which was formed with an objective to mine and process uranium ore in the country, is currently operating four underground mines, one opencast mine and two ore processing plants in East Singhbhum district of eastern Jharkhand state.
Gupta, also said the corporation is looking to expand operation by launching projects in Andhra Pradesh and Meghalaya.
“We have invested almost about 700 crore (rupees) in Jharkhand to construct new projects. We are also planning new projects in Andhra Pradesh and Meghalaya. And...mining work is in process in Karnataka. So, you can see that we are going ahead with our program to develop nuclear power through indigenous resources,“ he said.
In August, the Union Cabinet approved the setting up of a uranium mine and a processing plant in south India at a cost of 11.06 billion rupees (269.9 million dollars).
The mine and processing plant will be set up in Cuddapah district in Andhra Pradesh.
While in tiny tribal state of Meghalaya, close to the border with Bangladesh, UCIL is awaiting statutory clearances.
Officials estimate there are up to 10,000 tons of uranium in and around Domiasat, the area considered to have the largest and richest deposits in the country.

Sun supplies only a tiny fraction, less than one tenth of 1 percent, of mankind's energy needs.

A surge in investment in solar power is bringing down costs of the alternative energy source, but affordability problems still dog hopes for the 1.6 billion people worldwide without electricity.
The sun supplies only a tiny fraction--less than one tenth of 1 percent--of mankind’s energy needs. But its supporters believe a solar era may be dawning, boosted by western funding to combat oil ’addiction’ and climate change, Reuters reported.
Governments from Japan to Germany and the United States are helping the public wean themselves off fossil fuels.
An average German household, for example, can earn over 2,000 euros ($2,860) a year from subsidies to install solar panels--double their electricity bill--and pay off all costs within 10 years and earn a pure profit for a further 10.
But there are few handouts in developing nations where it could be argued solar power is more relevant--in sunnier countries where many people have no electricity at all.
A scientific body which groups academies worldwide--the InterAcademy Council--said two weeks ago efforts to curb climate change must target vast numbers of people who lack basic energy.
“It’s sad that 1.6 billion people live without electricity and two to three billion use energy in a primitive way very damaging to health,“ said Professor Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate physicist based at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-chair of the report for the Dutch-based body.
Low incomes and low subsidies, if any, can make clean energy a hard sell in developing countries.
In the Indian state of Karnataka private firms, backed by state government subsidies, have over the last 3-5 years been pushing solar power for households in towns and cities, including giving discounts on power bills if solar is installed.
The picture is very different for off-grid rural Indian communities which until now were dependent on kerosene, or paraffin, lamps for lighting, having no electricity access.
“Kerosene is quite heavily subsidized but has limited availability in some rural areas, which has helped solar PV (photovoltaic) sales,“ said J.P. Painuly, senior energy planner at the Denmark-based Risoe National Laboratory.
“There are some solar PV programs that provide an extremely limited capital subsidy. It’s not at a scale that makes it viable. Solar PV is still really expensive... more expensive than kerosene.“
Worldwide about 1.5 million people die annually from indoor pollution due to lighting and cooking.
It is the health benefits that sell the more expensive panels together with the promise of a much brighter source of light than paraffin lamps so users can work and make money after dark, or read and educate themselves or their children.
The Solar Electric Light Company (SELCO) has supplied solar powered electricity to 75,000 households over the past 12 years in India, where 60 percent of households lack electricity.
Customers can spread the cost over five years, and microfinance creditors collect payments as often as weekly from those who struggle to put money aside.
One downside is that large parts of Karnataka get monsoon rains for about 4 months a year and people complain that solar systems are not effective in cloudy conditions.
Another is that SELCO’s small profits are making it difficult for the company to compete with salaries offered by Bangalore’s Internet industry and expand outside its core Karnataka state, said Hande.
Many wealthier suburbs in Karnataka cities and towns have terraces of houses with solar water heaters--a more basic and widely available technology which heats water but doesn’t supply electricity, unlike the solar PV panels.
SELCO cuts costs by making fluorescent light bulbs and designing solar panels itself, but the panels are still more expensive than the more heavily subsidized oil lamps.
So when will costs come down?
Rapidly developing countries like China are joining a silicon solar cell manufacturing boom, helping to pare the price of the alternative technology and simple, economy panels could soon be affordable even to the rural poor, said Chu.

Since hydrogen is the most commonly-occurring element in the universe, supply is not an issue.

It’s the most commonly-occurring element in the universe, it can be burned in a combustion engine or used to fuel electric motors, and it’s vastly cleaner emissions-wise than gasoline. The automotive industry seems to have settled on hydrogen as the magic bullet solution to the looming energy crisis.
Is hydrogen the answer? Honda is one of many major auto companies that think so--stating in a recent release on their FCX concept that “Hydrogen will fuel the next generation of global vehicles. It’s a fact accepted by the entire industry. And given that it’s the most commonly-occurring element in the universe, supply is not an issue,“ Businessweek.com reported.
But what about the new and coming generations of plug-in electric vehicles? As with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, its early days yet, but pure electric vehicles seem to have a few strong points of their own. So, with a focus on fuel cells rather than hydrogen fueled internal combustion engines, let’s take a look at the set of requirements a transportation fuel source has to meet to be viable, and see how hydrogen and batteries compare:

Abundance
It won’t be too long before there’s a billion passenger cars on Earth, so any future-focused fuel system needs to be able to satisfy an enormous demand. There’s plenty of hydrogen about--it’s the most common element in the universe--and we’re certainly not in any shortage of electrons. Hydrogen storage and battery materials are many and varied, and lithium, the current leader in battery technology, is abundant.

Efficiency
Both hydrogen and batteries can be viewed as means for storing and transporting energy for later use. Thus, the ratio of how much energy you get out to what you put in is an important consideration.
Electrolysis of water is the easiest method for producing hydrogen--but only about 70 percent of the electric power used in the process gets stored in the hydrogen it creates. Hydrogen then needs to be either compressed or cooled to a liquid in order to store large enough volumes to be useful in a car--gas compression is the more efficient of the two processes, but still costs a further 10 percent of the stored energy. The efficiency of the fuel cell storage unit itself is realistically estimated at around 36 percent under normal driving load--leading to a dismal overall power-grid-to-wheels efficiency of less than 25 percent. That is, less than a quarter of the power used to produce the hydrogen is ever actually used to propel the car.
Batteries are a clear winner in the grid-to-wheels efficiency battle. Conventional Lithium-ion batteries charge at about 93 percent efficiency and operate at about the same efficiency, leading to an overall efficiency of over 85 percent. For the same energy input, you’ll get three times the power out of a battery than out of a fuel cell.

Safety
High pressure storage, flammability, toxicity and explosive potential all represent safety hazards. Fuel cells either contain compressed gas at up to 35MPa or liquid hydrogen which needs to be kept under -253 degrees Celsius, so there’s clearly the chance for it to cause plenty of mischief in case of an accident. Batteries, however, also have their drawbacks here, introducing the risk of electrical hazards, toxic chemicals, electrical fires and fumes.

Economics
Both fuel cells and high-output battery cells are currently quite expensive, although this is forecast to become less of a factor with the advent of volume production. Of greater concern are the economics of building a delivery network. The current electricity grid system is well established in most countries, and with some modification and reinforcement could be upgraded to handle the strain of fulfilling the shortage of energy left if gasoline is removed from the passenger transport equation.
Hydrogen is more problematic. To derive its main benefit--the ability to fill a car quickly with fluid energy--a hydrogen distribution network similar to that used to distribute gasoline would need to be built. Hydrogen atoms are so small that they can sneak out through the molecular structure of many containers and pipes, meaning that it’s expensive and problematic to transport in great quantities. Generating the hydrogen on-site at filling stations is a potential solution, but at the end of the day, a fully functioning hydrogen economy capable of replacing the petroleum economy will cost trillions of dollars in America alone. Battery-electrics are a clear winner in this context.

Indonesia, the world’s largest exporter of thermal coal, is planning to impose a domestic market obligation (DMO) on coal producers to ensure sufficient supplies for 35 power stations that are due to come on stream in 2009.
The move follows attempts to secure cheap domestic supplies through policy intervention in other resource-based industries, notably palm oil and gas, as global prices and demand soar. Jakarta is also seeking to renegotiate contracts with international heavyweights, including Exxon-Mobil and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, to make more money, FT.com said.
Foreign executives in the resources sector say the moves are unwelcome but understandable and would be supported if the government could guarantee legislative, contract and price certainty so companies could make long-term investment decisions.
Purnomo Yusgiantoro, the energy and mineral resources minister, was quoted by local media on Nov. 1 as saying the government and parliament are now “undertaking the internal coordination so as to be able to implement the [DMO] policy“. “It’s necessary to secure future supplies for domestic use,“ he said, without indicating what the percentage for the domestic market might be.
Officials say the DMO would probably come into effect with the enactment of the long-delayed mining bill expected next month.
PLN, the state electricity company, predicts its coal needs will rise from 30 million to 70 million tons to supply the power stations. The Indonesian Coal Society estimates that by 2009 domestic demand will be 103 million tons, up from 33 million this year. Production is expected to be 203 million tons this year, up from 193 million last year, and set to rise to 225 million next year.
Domestic prices are as much as 20 percent lower than export prices but officials say the government will not seek to regulate DMO prices.
Producers and analysts say a DMO would hit revenue because the traditional model of exporting only better quality coal is changing. “The Chinese and Indians are willing to take almost anything because demand is going crazy,“ said Phil Rickard, a Jakarta-based extractive industries expert.
But he and others were not overly critical of the broader economic nationalism. “I think it is reasonable that the government wants more,“ said an executive at a foreign mining company.
“It is just a question of how they arrange it so it does not penalize producers in a low-price environment, or eliminate incentives to put in new capital.“