Nuclear energy no solution: Physicist

CHENNAI: At a time when the protests are gaining momentum against the commissioning of the KKNPP, a renowned Nuclear Physicist from Germany has said that nuclear energy cannot be a solution for sustainable power needs.“Of course, its so obvious that it (Nuclear Power) is a nonsense as we don’t know what to do with the waste,” Prof. Hans Peter Duerr, Director Emeritus Max Planck Institute for Physics, Munich, Germany said, when agitations against the Plant in Tirunelveli was brought to his notice.The noted Physicist was addressing the media on Thursday in connection with the first TAG - VHS Diabetes Research Centre Oration here on Friday, in which he is going to deliver the oration on ‘Nuclear Power and Energy Hunger’.Duerr observed that the one way of disposing the waste from nuclear energy is blowing off bombs. “So many countries, which have reactors, don’t know where to put it,” he added. However, he claimed that he had invented a technology that could be the solution for sustainable energy needs and an alternate for the nuclear energy.Interestingly, Duerr had got his Ph.D as a student of Edward Teller, father of hydrogen bombs, when in Berkeley University, USA.After realising that N-bombs can never bring peace, he found ways to attain peace.He has received several awards including the Peace Award in 1995.