Full text of Dr Anil Kakodkar''s speech at IAEA meeting

Our Economic Bureau
20 September 2007

Let me first of all congratulate you on behalf of my Government and on my own behalf, on your election as President of the 51st General Conference. I am sure, under your able Presidentship and with the support of your team and the Secretariat of the Agency; this General Conference will be able to accomplish the tasks before it.

I also take this opportunity to welcome the entry of Kingdom of Bahrain, Republic of Burundi , Nepal , Republic of Congo and Republic of Cape Verde to the membership of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Over the past half century, the growth of the Agency and India''s nuclear energy programmes have evolved side by side. The Agency has contributed immensely to harness the benefits of nuclear energy and its applications for all mankind. India , home to a sixth of global population with a sound and time-tested philosophy of life, too has evolved its own nuclear technological capability, realised on the basis of self-reliant domestic development for the welfare of its people. Our Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Training School which has provided almost the entire human resource for our nuclear programme has also completed fifty glorious years and our Prime Minister was with us only a fortnight ago for the graduation function of its 50th batch.

On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, it is gratifying to recognise the unique place that the IAEA has within the UN system. The prestige, credibility and authority of IAEA in this new century rests to a very good measure on the consistent good work done by its Secretariat under the wise leadership of Dr El Baradei especially for the past critical decade. My delegation would like to pay handsome tributes to the Director General and the dedicated staff of IAEA for their professionalism, impartiality and core competence in serving the Member States in accordance with the Statute of the Agency. IAEA''s achievements in the past half-century have much to contribute to rekindled hopes for a peaceful atom in coming years.

Mr. President,

The world today is at the threshold of a paradigm shift. There is greater awareness today than ever before about the serious consequences to humanity as a whole arising out of the threat to global climate which seems to be at the cliff edge. This situation has come about as a result of unmindful and unsustainable use of fossil energy by a small fraction of world population in industrially advanced societies. On the other hand, a larger part of world population is now on a rapid economic development path. It would require enormous amounts of energy resources to bridge the deficit between the emerging demand and current supply which is very low in the developing world even compared to global average per capita energy consumption. It seems impossible to sustain a tension-free society with 20 or 30 times less per capita energy access in the current interdependent world so closely connected through modern-day communications. It is estimated that meeting development aspirations of these large populations which are now well capable of buying their necessities would raise serious energy sustainability issues and consequent escalation of fuel prices that would affect us all. One needs to look at nuclear energy in this context. Energy associated with processes involving the nucleus of an atom is several million-fold higher than the energy associated with processes that involve electrons that orbit around the nucleus. The latter forms the basis of energy through burning of fossil fuels. Thus, a kilogram of uranium can be a source of a million times more energy as compared to a kilogram of coal or a kilogram of hydrocarbons. Non-emission of greenhouse gases that have threatened the global climate is also a feature of nuclear energy that is catching the imagination of even some of those who earlier opposed it. As a matter of fact, nuclear energy released through fission or fusion of atomic nuclei and solar energy that we receive from the sun are the only two viable basic energy sources capable of meeting our long-term energy needs. We also cannot escape the fact that the sun derives its energy from nuclear fusion. There is, however, a serious fear of the unknown. Such concerns are natural and have been faced by humankind whenever there has been a paradigm shift in things around it. Whether it is in learning to live with fire or advancing from horse carriages to locomotives and automobiles, man has gone through similar dilemmas. But eventually, he has mastered the new technology and accessed its benefits, overcoming the fear of the unknown. In the absence of such foresight and conviction, we could not have made progress. In the case of nuclear energy we are, however, talking on an altogether different scale. Given the population pressure and the need to provide a good quality of life to all, we must evolve ourselves as a society that can benefit from this high-intensity energy source without the risk of its misuse.