Kolkata: Supporting the controversial India-U.S. nuclear deal, R. Chidambaram, chairman of the Union Cabinet's Scientific Advisory Committee, said here on Monday that the deal, if operationalised, will secure uranium supply for the country's reactors as well as facilitate technological collaboration with countries having nuclear know-how. He was speaking to newspersons after delivering the Raja Ramanna Memorial lecture at the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre here. Dr. Chidambaran, however, skirted the question whether the deal would come through in the face of stiff Left opposition. Lecturing on "Nuclear Energy and Climate Change,' Dr. Chidambaram said: "Generation of at least 20,000 megawatts of nuclear energy by 2020 will enable the country to develop a sustainable low carbon-dioxide-emitting energy path in the future to slacken global warming.' "Nuclear energy is the inevitable option to the country's future energy requirements,' he added. Dr. Chidambaram also pointed out that the closed fuel cycle technology used by the fast breeder reactors in the country decreases the chances of pollution through nuclear waste to a considerable extent. "Other forms of renewable energies like solar and hydro should also be developed in due course as nuclear energy alone would not be able to meet the huge future demand,' he said. He added that nuclear technology would help to overcome water shortage in future by desalinating seawater, using power and low-quality heat.