Sri Lanka and India have talks on Thorium-based nuclear energy: report

Oct 06, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka's science and technology ministry have sounded out India about using the island's Thorium deposits in nuclear energy, and an Indian team is expected to visit the country to study the idea, a media report said. The Daily Mirror newspaper quoted science and technology minister Tissa Vitharana as saying that Sri Lanka has had discussion with the Indian delegation to an international atomic energy conference in Vienna.

The newspaper said a team of India nuclear experts would visit Sri Lanka would study the feasibility of starting a Thorium reactor and submit the report to the Sri Lankan government and the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA).

Sri Lanka would then pursue the idea further with India, the report said.

Vitharana had told the newspaper that Sri Lanka had Thorium deposits in the Western coast of the island from Beruwala to Negombo, which is an areas stretching South and North of the capital, Colombo.

Thorium based nuclear energy is still largely in experimental stages.

"The Indians have developed a technology to enrich Thorium as a source of energy to produce electricity," minister Vitharana was quoted as saying.

"They are on the verge of commissioning a