Powerful Matters

There has been immense debate raging over nuclear power plants in the world over the last few years with fears over their safety having intensified after the Fukushima-Da Ichi plant disaster in March of 2011 and large sections of activists, general population and nuclear sceptics protesting to close down existing plants and to shelve plans to construct more of them.

The usual arguments against nuclear power plants are-
1) Safety- The reactor that spewed radio activity in Japan was constructed in the 60s and most of us were not even born yet. The latest model reactors have modern safety features and in India, these are in comparatively seismically safe zones  and have adequate safety features to prevent a Fukushima type failure of back-up coolant pumping mechanism (a)
2)Spend fuel- Usually, spend fuel requires to be stored in isolated areas and the practice has been to store them underground in specially constructed bunkers or caves. India has adopted a closed nuclear fuel cycle which creates 50times more energy (b)  (c) than all other systems and reuses large amounts of the spend fuel.
3)Lack of precautionary drills and awareness among people in the surrounding area and threat to environment- this is the only reasonable argument that I have heard from among the heap of protests that is holding back nuclear energy in India.

It is not a matter of doubt that we face sever power crisis in our country and our growth (whether this growth benefits only the rich and powerful who then pacify the middle class and the intention of signing contracts with pernicious clauses is altogether another issue) is directly dependent on availability of power. Every sphere of human activity is now dependent on power and its shortage severely restricts our individual capabilities. Nuclear energy is considered the best option to meet this requirement but uninformed protestors and a lot of 'environmentalists' or 'green citizens' recommend renewable energy sources like wind, solar, tidal energy and biomass(will we be asked to switch to firewood soon since it is also biomass?). I would like to point out a few misconceptions with respect to these renewable energy sources.

Wind Energy- this is highly location specific and require large patches of land and in a country that has a population density of over 400 people a square kilometer, a model pioneered by scarcely populated Scandinavian countries is little more than a misfit. Even then, let us assume we find enough land, there is an issue called capacity factor (d). I regularly see articles that talk about the installed capacity of wind energy in India but how much of their capacity can be utilised? Capacity factor for wind mills is just 20-40% and that is when all conditions are favourable. From my personal experience of having done a project on renewable energy and spend considerable time studying actual systems, what we get is less than 10% in most areas (e). What this means is that if a wind farm has a capacity of 100MW, it can at best produce 10MW.


Solar- It is as obvious as daylight that sun does not shine for 24 hours a day and the best capacity factor for solar photovoltaic (SPV) cells is at 19% (f) . In short, both solar and wind mills cannot be relied for consistent power outputs (anyone who has studied renewable energy basics should know this) and we cannot wait for the wind to blow or sunny days to complete our tasks. There is also the misconception that placing huge solar panel arrays in the Thar desert will easily solve all our issues. Only those with no clear understanding of the workings of SPV technology will say so- dust, high temperature fluctuations and corrosion will reduce efficiency over time and destroy the SPV array before costs can be recovered (again from my personal experience, just normal dust from the landscape will cause huge fall in power output).

(There is a scope to question the capacity factor of nuclear plants and other sources of energy. The capacity factor for nuclear energy is infact 90% (g) and for thermal plants it is more than 60% (h) which is far better than that of renewable energy)
 
Tidal Energy- highly location specific and installed capacity is just around 500MW all around the world. This can be developed to meet power requirements of coastal areas.

In placing our nation's development in such a technology, we need to exercise extreme caution and this means we have to ensure adequate fuel supply for these plants, we need to ensure the safety of the people in the vicinity, take them into confidence and make them part of this endeavour since their livelihoods might be at risk from the normal operation of the plant (water being used up and hot water being released back) and are also at immediate risk from any accidents. The survival and livelihoods of the people must never face any threats and there should be detailed procedures, mock drills, awareness programs to prepare for worst case scenarios and minor accidents along with adequate steps to protect the environment.

Nuclear energy is one of the paths we must traverse to attain carbon free energy production and this is the only source of stable, uninterrupted, large scale power we have before us right now and the so called alternatives do not meet our needs- neither in terms of actual production or reliability. There are technical issues with all sources of power, but when a luminary like Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam whose credentials need no mention here supports nuclear power, we must not simply dismiss it lightly.

The future for solar and wind energy will mostly lie in localised production with houses having their own mini power plants with SPV cells or wind mills or both to meet part of their domestic demand thereby reducing the load on centralised production. Centralised power produced through nuclear plants and other existing plants shall become the source of power for heavy usage including industry, large and commercial buildings and railway transport. The politics and business of power plants have always been an issue in India with previous experiences with Enron having turned sour and developed powers trying to use 3rd world nations as the hunting ground for new markets. It should be the safety of the people and their welfare that must guide such a project and the solution to meeting our energy demand through clean, reliable fuels lie in ensuring these are implemented by keeping at heart the interests of the people and not be scuttled the misplaced fears of the a few or in the selfish interests of  monopolies while depriving the downtrodden in this nation.

Oil-The Black Gold or Satan's fluid avatar?

Crude oil, drilled from the depths of the earth, is called black gold due to its value, demand and utility. The modern economy is so much dependent on oil that any imbalance in its production, distribution or sale will send shock-waves across the entire world. It drives the modern economy in its use as automobile fuel, lubricants, cooking gas, asphalt. Crude oil is refined and its various components are put to the uses mentioned above. Oil has been rightly described by many as the greatest natural resource ever as everything that we do is dependent on oil. Inspite of all this, there are several unknown faces to black gold. I would like to discuss some of the unknown facts about oil.

1)Oil finds its use chiefly as a source of energy since it is made of an energy rich class of compounds called hydrocarbons. The various products extracted from crude oil is burned to produce energy which powers modern life in this planet. This leads to production of various gases like oxides of carbon, sulphur and nitrogen. These are dangerous for a few reasons-
These are greenhouse gases that trap the sun's heat and retains it in the earth's atmosphere. This keeps the earth warm for life to flourish but too much of this can make things too hot for life. This aspect is widely known as the debate on climate change has much to do with the burning of oil.

2)Modern economy is complerely based on oil. Oil's biggest use is for transportation i.e, movement of people and goods from one point to another. Therefore, any fluctuation in the price of oil can affect the price of everything that we use as everything that we use had its raw materials made in one place, processing done at another place, manufacturing then packing and then distribution all of which involves trasportation. So, it can affect the livelihood of everyone and always hits the poor and the salaried class the hardest.

3)The presence of this natural resource has lead to flourishing economies that do not even have to levy taxes on its people since the revenue from oil is used for civic purposes. But the absence of oil has meant that a nation will have to spend a large amount of its foreign exchange reserves for importing petroleum which is a huge drain on its economy. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait etc levy no taxes on its people but India spends a lion's share of its foreign exchange on importing petroleum.

4)The oil crisis and shortage of the 70s had implications all over the world with queues that were miles long. The world is heading to a similar crisis with oil reaching $110 per bbl. This would affect the prices of all commodities and can lead to a lot of conflicts.

5)Due to all this, the ones who control the oil supplies control the fate of the world and many conflicts have been fought over oilfields. The Gulf War of the 1990s, USSRs attack on Afghanistan, policies and animosities between Latin American countries and America, American intrusions into middle east politics and the conflicts in Nigeria are all due to the selfish interests of nation to gain strategic control of the oil reserves. Oil has huge geopolitical implications and this does not bode well for the world.


All this shows that the entire world depends on oil in many ways and due to this, oil has gained so much power that all nations are under its influence. It influences their policies, decisions, economy and infact every aspect of life is influenced by petroleum. The question then is, can one material be allowed to possess so much power? With just one product having so much of power, those who possess it will determine the life of those who dont and those who dont have it, will try to possess this resource or control it by means of force, the way America has done to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait etc by establishing military bases and military presence in oil rich nations. The resources of nature are for all to be used, not for the control of lives of the people of the world. It should be used for development of the world and root out hunger and poverty not spread these by raising the price of essential goods above the reach of the poor.

The only way forward is to find a substitute for oil. Not just one substitute, but many of them that will replace oil gradually. We need to develop renewable resources and at the same time reduce our dependence on oil gradually to zero. We need to make efficient use of oil until alternative sources can replace it and also must reduce wastage. Also, we must adopt the alternative energy sources when they are introduced and phase out petroleum products from our world for a greener, free, pollution-free and conflict-free future.