By: Late V. Sundaram, IAS
Rs 60,00,000 Crore Thorium Scam by … by whom – you guess !
Illegal sand mining is rife throughout the coastal belts of India. Many of us are under the impression that this sand is used for construction.
We couldn’t be more wrong !!
India holds the biggest reservoir of Thorium along our beaches, with Tamil Nadu alone holding more than 30% of the world’s Thorium deposits. The sand in our beaches is full of Thorium.
India was No 1 in Thorium based Fast Breeder ( FBT) Nuclear Technology.
[ A note by the editor: Let us know, for the uninitiated, what is the importance of Thorium based FBT Nuclear Technology.
We all know about atom bombs, which country posses them in greatest number, why there is so much control and curb on the export of its technology and related material from one country to another and what goes into the nitty gritty of this technology. This is one aspect of the Nuclear Technology. Another aspect is its application in the power generation. All countries are hungry for power – electricity – for the development of their economy. Industries need electricity to run them. And, in this matter – electricity generation – the Nuclear Technology is very handy.
Unfortunately, the Nuclear Technology mastered by most of the world’s powers revolve around Uranium. Uranium is found in very little quantity around the world. Its mining, processing and export is highly controlled by the countries which possess its raw material in the form of mineral.
Fortunately, Thorium and Uranium both are radioactive and fit for running the electricity generation process, called Fast Breeder Technology. But the technology of utilizing Thorium in Fast Breeder Reactors is not perfected by most of the countries and they depend entirely on Uranium technology.
Here comes the relevance of Thorium and India. India was at the forefront in the world in developing and perfecting the Thorium Fast Breeder Reactors Technology. Killing this edge of Indian superiority in this new technology amounts to Greatest Crime by anybody who might be found responsible for the same.]
Hold the breath:
India was No. 1 in Thorium based Fast Breeder Nuclear Technology … untill ex-PM Dr Manmohan Singh and Union Defence Minister A.K Antony moth balled it for 10 years, under orders of the Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Once Sonia Gandhi led UPA government came to power, former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh followed an unwritten policy of severely downsizing indigenous Thorium-Based Technology Programme ( Fast Breeder Reactor — FBT), thereby making India dependent on foreign countries for advanced nuclear technology, key scientists claim on the condition of anonymity.
Indian Nuclear Scientists at Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) claim that by 2013, India would have mastered the technology to build Thorium based 1 Gigawatt Nuclear Reactors, which is now being supplied by China to Pakistan.
The smuggling and illegal mining of beach mineral sand started flourishing in Kerala costal lines after 2007 when ilmenite was delisted from the list of ‘Prescribed Substances’, by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the UPA-I rule .
Not many Indians know that RARE EARTH Mineral — Titanium is processed from ilmenite.
Indian Nuclear Scientists say that, “Since the UPA government assumed office in 2004 with Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister, 2.1 million tones of RARE EARTHS ( that contain monazite , ilmenite, cerium, Garnet, Zircon and Rutile), equivalent to 195,300 tonnes of thorium at 9.3 per cent recovery, has disappeared from the sea shores of India.” This RARE EARTHS ( monazite, quite rich in thorium), is reported to have been mostly exported to other countries by a powerful mining cartel.
China has received Thorium from us that will last them for 24,000 years!
Chinese are now developing THORIUM MOLTEN SALT REACTOR (MSR) TECHNOLOGY, in collaboration with USA. China Takes Lead in Race for Clean Nuclear Power. This should have been ours but for this Italian and her traitorous Sepoys! Karuna, Waitress, were paid handsomely by China for the sands, sent by local barges to trincomalee. It was daylight smuggling, completely off the export books. Pay rent directly to Dubai banks.