Kurukshetra: The Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Dr S Baneerjee, said large-scale conversion of thorium into uranium could help India meet the increasing demand of energy as nuclear energy was cheap and environment friendly. Talking to The Tribune on the sidelines of Science Congress here yesterday, he said the contribution of energy from existing nuclear power plants was a meagre 3 per cent of the total electricity used and it would increase to 10 per cent by 2032. The per unit cost of nuclear energy was also low - between Rs 2.75 and Rs 2.85 per unit - which was cheaper as compared to thermal power and matched evenly with hydropower. Dr Banerjee said as a naturally occurring metal thorium was substantially more abundant than uranium and its most common isotopic form, thorium-232, could be converted by irradiation to uranium-235, which is suitable for use in nuclear fuels. The US is estimated to have 4,00,000 tonnes of thorium, Turkey 3,44,000 tonnes and India 3,19,000 tonnes and uranium-235 accounts for 0.7 per cent of uranium that is now being mined. He said by radiation therapy around 37 varieties of seeds were muted which had given favourable results like higher yield, early maturity and disease resistant. Another significant thing was that the spend fuel was used to make protons and the left out was reprocessed and recycled. Speaking on the nuclear deal, he said earlier there was an embargo on all nations other than the nuclear suppliers group to supply uranium to India but with Civil Nuclear Treaty, the country could meet the nuclear energy requirements for growth by importing nuclear fuel for supplier countries.