India to host Asian Nuclear Prospects conference

Chennai: Around 250 nuclear scientists, technologists and industrialists are expected to participate in the three-day Asian Nuclear Prospects 2010 conference to be held at Mamallapuram in October, a top official of atomic research unit said Saturday.

"The 2nd International Conference on Asian Nuclear Prospects 2010 (ANUP 2010) will be held Oct 11-13 at Mamallapuram. The conference will focus on the prospects that the Asian region offers for the nuclear industry. It will also serve as a platform for bringing countries that are advanced in nuclear power to Asia having huge atomic energy programmes," Baldev Raj, director, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) told reporters here.

He said the event will be hosted by IGCAR and Indian Nuclear Society (INS) with the cooperation of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The first edition of the conference was held in 2008 at Japan.

According to Raj, the countries in the Asian region have plans to generate around 50,000MW of nuclear power over the next decade.

"At an average outlay of 10 crore per MW the potential is huge for those in the nuclear power sector to ignore," Raj said.

Atomic Energy Commission chairman and Atomic Energy department secretary S. Banerjee will inaugurate the conference, he said.

Around 60 foreign delegates including 30 eminent speakers will participate in the event. The IAEA will be sending a three member specialist team for the event. Y.Sokolov, deputy director general, IAEA will also be participating in the conference.

Asian countries like Japan, China, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and countries like the US, Russia, Canada will take an active part in the event.

Asked about the absence of Pakistan and Iran, Raj said invitations were sent to those countries that are advanced in nuclear science while there are countries that have approached India for participation.

"We haven't been approached by these two countries. However foreign participants have to be cleared by external affairs ministry," he said.
Source: IANS