NUCLEAR-POWER IN INDIA - THE COSTS OF INDEPENDENCE

The history of nuclear power in India can be split into the period before the Pokharan nuclear explosion in 1974, and the period after it. Before 1974 there existed a clear long-term strategy which envisaged the eventual exploitation as a nuclear fuel of India's substantial thorium reserves. International collaboration was essential to this phase of development. With the militarization of the programme, the object of producing affordable electricity mutated into one of producing unsafeguarded plutonium, at whatever cost. The loss of substantial technical collaboration has been a factor in the poor performance and high production costs of Indian nuclear electricity. Until recently, the secrecy which surrounded the nuclear programme protected it from public scrutiny. Political, economic and structural reforms now taking place in India are likely to have a profound effect on the future viability of the programme.