Nuclear+Fuel+Cycle

Sravya Chilukuri Period 3 Committee: IAEA Topic #2: Nuclear Fuel Cycles

A. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 1. Republic of India or Bharatiya Ganarajya 2. Varies from tropical monsoons in the Southern region of India to temperate and moderate climate in the Northern region of India 3. a. The Geopgraphic coordinates (latitude and longitude) are 20 00 N, 77 00 E; Surrounding countries include Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, China, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. India shares the Himalayan mountains with Nepal. b. Physical features include the Deccan Plateau in Southern India, flat rolling plains along the Ganges River, deserts in the Western part of India, and the Himalayan Mountains in Northern India. One would also see the Thar Desert and Rann of Kutch as well as the Godavari River in Southern India. Major bodies of water surrounding India include the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean, and the Arabian Sea.

c. The total area of India is 3,287,590 square kilometers

B. POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

4. The type of government is the federal republic, and government parties and their main leaders include Bahujan Samaj Party or BSP [MAYAWATI]; Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP [Rajnath SINGH]; Biju Janata Dal or BJD [Naveen PATNAIK]; Communist Party of India or CPI [Ardhendu Bhushan BARDHAN]; Communist Party of India-Marxist or CPI-M [Prakash KARAT]; Dravida Munnetra Kazagham or DMK [M. KARUNANIDHI]; Indian National Congress or INC [Sonia GANDHI]; Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) [Sharad YADAV]; Jharkhand Mukti Morcha or JMM [Shibu SOREN]; Left Front (an alliance of Indian leftist parties); Lok Jan Shakti Party or LJSP [Ram Vilas PASWAN]; Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or MDMK [V. Gopalswamy VAIKO]; Nationalist Congress Party or NCP [Sharad PAWAR]; Pattali Makkal Katchi or PMK [S. RAMADOSS]; Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD [Laloo Prasad YADAV]; Samajwadi Party or SP [Mulayam Singh YADAV]; Shiromani Akali Dal or SAD [Parkash Singh BADAL]; Shiv Sena or SS [Bal THACKERAY]; Telangana Rashtriya Samithi or TRS [K. Chandrashekhar RAO]; Telugu Desam Party or TDP [Chandrababu NAIDU]; United Progressive Alliance or UPA [Sonia GANDHI] (India's ruling party coalition of 12 political parties)

5. The capitol of India is New Delhi

6. The International Organizations India is affiliated with are the ADB, AfDB (nonregional members), ARF, ASEAN (dialogue partner), BIMSTEC, BIS, C, CERN (observer), CP, EAS, FAO, G-15, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, LAS (observer), MIGA, MONUC, NAM, OAS (observer), OPCW, PCA, PIF (partner), SAARC, SACEP, SCO (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNITAR, UNMIS, UNMIT, UNOCI, UNWTO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

7. India ’s armed forces consist of about one million personnel and 34 active field divisions.

C. CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY

8. The official languages of India are Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdo, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit. Other languages include Maithili and Hindustani. Ethnic groups are Indo- Aryan, Dravidian, Mongoloid, and other. The major religions of India are Hindu, Muslim, Christian, and Sikh.

9. The population of India consists of 1,147,995,904 people since of July 2008. The Population growth rate is 1.578%, and population distribution is 0-14 year olds: 31.5% (male 189,238,487/female 172,168,306); 15-64 years of age: 63.3% (male 374,157,581/ female 352,868,003); and 65 years and older: 5.2% (male 28,285,796/ female 31,277,725)

10. Major cities of India include Ahmadabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nagpur, and Poona

11. The infant mortality rate is 32.31 deaths out of 1,000 lives and the average life expectancy 66.87 years for a male and 71.9 years for a female.

12. teachers and doctors per population

D. ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

13. Th total GDP rate for India is $3.305 trillion and the GDP per capita is $2,600 (PPP)

14. 17.8% of land is used for agriculture

15. Natural resources include iron ore, bauxite, copper ore, gold, silver, copper, and iron.

16. Major agricultural products are rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, potatoes, water, buffalo, sheep, goats, poultry, and fish. Industrial products include textiles, chemicals, steel, food, transportation equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, and software.

17. The major exports are petroleum products, textile goods, gems and jewelry, engineering goods, chemicals, and leather manufactures. The major imports are crude oil, machinery, gems, fertilizer, and chemicals.

18. Indian currency is called the Indian Rupee and the exchange rater per US dollar is 41.487 Rupees.

19. Exports: $151.3 billion f.o.b and Imports: $230.5 f.o.b

II. Background:

The Nuclear Fuel Cycle, also called the nuclear fuel chain is the progression of nuclear fuell through different stages. If spent fuel is not reprocessed, the fuel cycle is referred to as an open fuel cycle. However, if the spent fuel is reprocessed, it is referred to as a closed fuel cycle. It is also the process through which fissionable materials are processed and are ready for plants to generate energy, electricity, and heat. The main component of the nuclear fuel cycle is Uranium. First, uranium is mined from the Earth and is then transported to a plant in where it is converted to an enriched form. After Uranium is enriched, it is fabricated and at a fuel fabrication plant. After this long process, it is ready to be used in homes and buildings. After the nucleat energy is estinguished, it is stored at a nuclear waste site and is disposed.

III. UN Involvement:

The United Nations has created the Nuclear Non Proliferation treaty that limits the use of nuclear enery to just as a fuel source and nothing else. In addition, the UN has also created the International Atomic Energy Agency which oversees all nuclear activites and nuclear facilities. There are safeguards who overseen by the IAEA, that consider any part of nuclear material as part of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. The NPT allows 5 nations to obtain nuclear weapons and these countries are the USA, the UK, Russia, France, and China. No other country is allowed to make nuclear weapons or obtain them from any other country. In addition to stop the proliferation of nuclear technologies, the Nuclear Suppliers Group was established. The United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency are working together in order to keep the peaceful usage of nuclear technologies and fuel rather than create nuclear weaponry. The main goal of the IAEA is to use nuclear energy in a peaceful way and that is why they monitor the nuclear facilities of several countries. They no not want to give power to countries who cannot hadle it so they chose the Big 5 in order to create world peace. If all countries obtain nuclear weapons, then there is no reason for the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty and the IAEA will have nothing to uphold and keep in track. All countries have the right to use nuclear energy since it is a very good source for energy, but none of them have the right to create nuclear bombs for the purpose of destroying other nations because of their different beliefs. If all countries had nuclear bombs, then there is no telling wether or not some countries will abuse their given power of nuclear bombs.

IV. Country Policy/Possible Solutions:

India has a very reasonable nuclear fuel cycle that is well accepted by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and many of the other organizations that concern themselves with nuclear weapons. India does use nuclear energy quite a bit and we use it only for peaceful purposes. Although many nations have accused us for having nuclear weapons, India would like to make it clear that we only have our nuclear weapons for safety issues and we would never want to pose a threat to the world. The main reason India has nuclear weapons is because Pakistan has nuclear weapons. Pakistan has dislike us for hundreds of years and the fact that they had nuclear bombs and we did not was frightening. Our entire nation was unsafe and the only thing we want to do is protect our own people. India has closed nuclear fuel cycle that is of crucial importance for the implementation of its three stage power program. The long term core objective of the Indian nuclear power program if for providing energy independence on a sustainable basis. Out of the existing 443 nuclear power reactors in the world, less than half were under the International Atomic Energy Agency's safeguards.