Kalpakkam fast breeder reactor

India's Fast Breeder Reactor: A Civilisational Bet on Nuclear Self-Reliance and Sustainability

The reactor that has now gone critical at Kalpakkam, on the Bay of Bengal coastline in Tamil Nadu, is not the end of that journey. It is, more precisely, the end of the beginning. The real test is whether India can now scale fast breeder capacity rapidly enough to make a material difference to its energy-mix building on the Kalpakkam template, the industrial supply chains it has validated, and the engineering confidence it has earned. 

Dying Rivers, Disappearing Species: Zoological Cost of Pollution in Pakistan and India

The Indus and the Ganges are dying slowly, and with them disappear species that evolved over thousands of years within these waters. If current patterns continue, future generations may inherit rivers that exist geographically but are biologically empty. South Asia still has an opportunity to reverse this trajectory, but only if environmental protection becomes a shared regional priority rather than an afterthought.

Climate Migration: The Next Global Humanitarian Crisis?

Climate migration isn’t just about the loss of land. It is about the loss of memory, culture and home. When people are driven out of the places where they were born, few things that matter are merely economic. Over the next decades, the world will confront a fundamental dilemma. Can humankind handle the climate crisis in a surer way? Or will the future consist of millions searching for a new place to call home?

India Should Scale up its Fast Breeder Reactor Program to Meet Rising Energy Needs

The constraint on India’s expansion is fissile inventory, particularly between 2035-2045. At present, the breeder program depends on plutonium from a limited set of eight unsafeguarded reactors. Meanwhile, India has accumulated spent fuel from uranium imported for its safeguarded reactors. This significant plutonium is lying idle because we lack safeguarded reprocessing facilities. 

More on Climate, Sustainability and Energy

COVID-19 lays bare social inequality in the world, says UN chief

The COVID crisis "has revealed how unequal our societies are” said the UN chief in his message for World Health Day released on Monday

Use COVID-19 recovery to make inclusion ‘a reality’, UN chief on World Day

Building a more inclusive and accessible world that recognizes the contributions of all people, including persons with disabilities must be a “key goal” as countries work to recover from COVID-19 pandemic, United Nations Secretary-General said on Friday, commemorating World Autism Awareness Day.

‘Complete the work’, rid the world of deadly landmines, UN chief urges

United Nations Secretary-General has called on the international community to recommit to the target of a mine-free world, urging efforts to “make this the last decade when we need to devote ourselves to this task”.

UN rights body raises concern over appointments to Nepal Human Right Commission

A UN rights body raised "serious concern" on the manner in which the office-bearers of the Nepal National Human Rights Commissioner have been appointed by the Nepali government, reported the Kathmandu Post

Countries spending more on debt than education, health and social protection

Around one in eight nations spends more on debt than on social services, according to a new report from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) launched on Thursday, calling for debt service relief and restructuring to enable countries to bounce back from the pandemic

UN to provide $107 million to Sri Lanka to support agriculture

Sri Lanka will receive $107 million from a UN agency to support its agriculture sector

UN Peacekeeping: Progress made but work’s ‘far from done’

Three years since the UN Secretary-General launched his Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) initiative to strengthening peacekeeping operations worldwide, “significant progress” has been made “but our work is far from done”, the peacekeeping chief said on Monday

$29 billion a year by 2025 needed to get back on track to tackle AIDS: UNAIDS

A new report from the UN agency dedicated to ending HIV and AIDS ( UNAIDS) has shown that investing $29 billion a year to HIV response in low and middle income countries by 2025, will put the world back on track to eradicate the virus as a public health threat by 2030

India donates 200,000 vaccines to protect UN blue berets against COVID

India shipped out 200,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate UN blue berets serving in peacekeeping missions

UN resolution on Sri Lanka ‘victory for victims’: Human Rights Watch

The recently passed resolution on Sri Lanka that calls for reconciliation, justice, and accountability, is a “victory for victims” of the past crimes to help them, said Human Rights Watch (HRW)

'India has provided more vaccines globally than for its own citizens'

India has supplied more vaccines against COVID-19 to people around the world than has vaccinated its own citizens, according to India's Deputy Permanent Representative K. Nagaraj Naidu

Empowering women in peace operations remains top priority, says UN peacekeeping chief

Praising women’s fundamental contributions to peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts, the UN peacekeeping chief reiterated on Thursday that empowering women in the military remains a top priority, but to achieve this goal needs “all hands on deck”

UN committee draws up code for child rights in digital world

Over 30 years after the invention of the world wide web, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has laid out the ways that young people and children should be treated in the digital world, and how their rights should be protected

UN rights body starts monitoring Sri Lanka

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has started monitoring the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, a day after the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on the country

UN teams assisting tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees after massive fire

United Nations humanitarian personnel are on the ground evacuating tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees, after a devastating fire tore through the Kutupalong camp, in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, the world’s largest refugee camp