India to expand nuclear energy program

India said here Tuesday that it will push forward with a dramatic expansion of its nuclear energy program, tripling its atomic energy output from 20,000 megawatts (MW) by 2020 to a projected 60,000 MW by 2030. Prem Chand Gupta, a member of the Indian Parliament, made the remarks at an open meeting of the UN General Assembly to review a report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). "India views nuclear energy as an essential element of its national energy basket," he said, both an essential clean source of energy to meet growing energy needs and out of concerns about climate change. "We are committed to taking forward our three stage nuclear program based on a closed fuel cycle," he said. India is an emerging major player in the nuclear world, and its plan for a three-stage closed fuel cycle program will test its ability to produce a safe and clean source of energy for its citizens. Gupta also said India is launching a number of international initiatives that will bring the advantages of atomic energy to other developing countries in the region. In 2010, India donated a Bhabhatron II telecobalt unit -- an atomic radiotherapy cancer treatment -- to Vietnam, and it is in the process of donating a similar unit to Sri Lanka. Given the recent disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan in March 2011, India was taking all appropriate nuclear safety measures, he added. "It is imperative for the agency to take all necessary measures to allay misapprehensions in the public and member states about the safety of nuclear power plans taking into account the current advances in design and technology," Gupta said.