Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government is mulling on setting up a nuclear power plant in the state. Electricity Minister K Krishnankutty has raised this demand during his interaction with Union Minister RK Singh. A thorium-based nuclear plant has been established by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu.

The Kerala government has now asked the central government to study the possibilities of setting up a similar nuclear plant in the state. Discussions on thorium deposits were held in a meeting of the Energy Ministry at New Delhi a couple of weeks ago. In the meeting, Kerala had deliberated on the possibilities of mining thorium from the state and transporting the radioactive metal to the atomic centre in Kalpakkam. 

Officials point out that high quality thorium is available in plenty beneath the surface of the coastal regions in Kerala. However, there are a lot of environmental challenges involved in setting up a nuclear power plant. The government will have to face staunch opposition from environmentalists. The general public is largely against the idea of a nuclear power plant. The bigger challenge lies in overcoming these hurdles and finding a suitable location for the plant.

90 percent of the total thorium deposits in the world are found in India. Two lakh ton thorium deposits are spread among the black sand coastal belt in Kerala. The deposits are said to be of premium quality. The state can even earn a fortune by merely filtering out the thorium particles and sending them to Kalpakkam. This will help Kalpakkam power plant to produce low-cost electricity. However, it will take several years to establish multiple thorium-based nuclear power plants suitable for industrial purposes.