Top ranking nuclear scientist and principal scientific adviser, Dr R. Chidambaram, has emphasised that India is on its way to transforming itself into a developed nation. He was delivering a key lecture today at the Delhi College of Engineering on "Nuclear Energy: Energy Security and Climate Change". The question, however, is how fast we will realise this goal. He said for India to become a developed nation "we need to evolve innovative strategies and achieve global competitiveness in a number of key sectors of our economy. The development of a country correlates very strongly with per capita energy consumption and as such for India to achieve a pre-eminence position as a developed nation, the energy consumption has to increase manifold. Energy security, therefore, is not merely desirable but an essential goal which we have to achieve without fail if we wish to realise our dream of India as a developed nation." Chidambaram stressed on the fact that there is not enough fossil fuel in the world and its rapid depletion is reflected in the surge of crude oil prices we have witnessed in the recent past. India being largely dependent on crude oil import for its present energy needs, it is all the more important for us to devise an effective energy strategy to fuel our economic growth without sacrificing the interest of environment. Renewable energy has a role to play, but we have technological bottlenecks to achieve a major share in meeting our country's energy demands. "In this context, nuclear energy becomes an inevitable option and if harnessed in the right earnest it shall play an important role in satisfying this surging energy demand," said Dr Chidambaram. Though the cost of building a nuclear plant is 30 per cent more than a coal-based one, the fuelling cost in a nuclear plant is proportionately lower and so, the cost balances out during the lifespan of the plant. Chidambaram informed that, "unlike fossil fuels, nuclear energy does not contribute to climate change, being a closed cycle for the nuclear plants. It is for this reason that the nuclear power is now recognized universally as an important mitigating technology in the context of climate change." The nuclear renaissance today in the already-developed countries is driven both by considerations of energy security and by the climate change threat. He said India has a three-stage indigenous nuclear power programme - pressurized heavy water reactors, fast breeder reactors and thorium-based reactors. Fast reactors used in the closed cycle mode provide the option for the full exploitation of the natural nuclear fuel resources. This is further enhanced by inclusion of thorium in the closed nuclear fuel cycle, making nuclear a near-Renewable energy resource. The Indo-US nuclear deal and the NSG waiver would make it easier to import the technology and fuel needed for the first stage of pressurized heavy water reactors and imported water-cooled reactors. However, India would continue intense research and development of fast breeder reactors and thorium utilization that constituted the second and third stages, thus closing the nuclear fuel cycle.