Sri Lanka “need to seriously consider” nuclear energy feasibility – President
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka should consider a report on possibility of using nuclear energy, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Friday when delivering a keynote speech at ‘Reform Now’ economic forum organised by Colombo-based think tank Advocata Institute.
“I think we need to seriously consider getting a report on using nuclear energy in Sri Lanka,” he said when he was explaining the way forward with new avenues to boost economy.
“More energy you have, more energy you can sell to India. At the same time, keep more renewable energy available here.”
Sri Lanka has been struggling to meet its energy demand given it is mostly relying on fossil fuel and coal. A dollar shortage has already hit the imports of fuel which had led to power cuts.
India in February 2015 sealed a nuclear energy agreement with Sri Lanka and under the deal, India was to help Sri Lanka to build its nuclear energy infrastructure, including training of personnel. It was also planned that India could sell light small-scale nuclear reactors to Sri Lanka which had been wanted to establish 600 MW of nuclear capacity by 2030.
However, the project did not take off so far. (Colombo/Aug 05/2022)