INSTITUTE OF INFRASTRUCTURE, TECHNOLOGY, RESEARCH AND MANAGEMENT POPULAR LECTURE SERIES (2014 – 15) Speaker : Professor Tulsi Mukherjee Title : Energy Security Time : Wednesday, 22 April, 2015 at 3:10 pm Venue : Seminar Hall, First floor, IITRAM Abstract On 22nd of April Prof. Tulsi Mukherjee delivered an excellent talk on “Energy Security”. Prof Mukherjee is presently associated with Dharamsinh Desai University, Nadiad as the Director of Shah-Schulman Center for Surface Science and Nanotechnology. Prior to that he was Director, Bhaba Atomic Research Center, and also Senior Professor at Homi Bhaba National Institute. Prof Mukherjee’s talk was very informative and interesting as he discussed about the most practical issue - “Energy production and consumption”. Energy security bridges between national security and availability of natural resources for energy consumption. He deliberated nicely on the sources of energy and how renewable energy sources have significant potential to meet the demand for smooth functioning of the modern economics. He depicted a clear picture about the world as well as India’s energy scenario and how Nuclear energy can be used as an important part of it. He discussed about the necessary conditions to establish nuclear power plant and what are the important nuclear fusion and fission reactions, responsible for generation of huge amount of energy. As per the available data Gujarat is in 2nd position just after Maharashtra on the basis of production of energy. It is very essential to control the utilization of total power and which can only be achieved by effective policy decisions. He was quite successful in convincing the audience, that nuclear power has immense scope and only proper handling is required to achieve the goal. It has found tremendous application in various areas like agriculture, food, medical treatment etc. A nation’s progress and index of prosperity depend on its energy security. The per capita electricity consumption of India (~800kWh) is way below that of other developed nation. The major source of India’s electricity generation comes from the thermal coal-based source (~60%). The overall stock of coal is fast depleting. There is a limit on the hydel power generation. Non-conventional sources of energy generation, like solar, tidal, wind, geothermal, bio-mass, fuel cells, hydrogen, etc, have not been as much as one will expect. Nuclear energy has its own plus and minus points. It is compact, relatively safe, not very expensive, has increased potential after the Indo-US 123 Agreement and approvals from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the powerful Nuclear Suppliers’ Group. The long-term prospects of nuclear energy is bright and will be discussed. Being very rich in thorium, India can embark upon thorium-based reactors, once the teething troubles are taken care of. Overall energy scenario in different states of India, with special emphasis on Gujarat, will be discussed. As an added advantage, various societal benefits like food and water security, health security, national security and science & engineering at the cutting edge and other benefits of nuclear energy will also be discussed. He concluded his talk by giving a glace of different nuclear power plants in different parts of India. The presentation was very useful for the students and they interacted actively with Prof. Mukherjee.