New Delhi: India is set to add around 20,000 Megawatt (Mw) of nuclear power generation capacity over the next decade, K N Vyas, Secretary at the the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) said today.Speaking at an industry event here, he said steady and un-interrupted power supply by nuclear power plants gives it an edge over solar and wind power. "There would always exist a requirement for steady and un-interrupted power supply represented by nuclear energy, especially since storage technology required to compensate for the lean period when wind does not blow or sun does not shine is currently rather expensive," he said.He also said that the country has now started using higher capacity reactors to increase standardisation and is heading for fleet mode of construction, thereby reducing construction cost and speeding up construction time.Vyas said nuclear energy with its almost non-existent carbon footprint is one of the cleanest options for reduction of global warming and climate change mitigation He added nuclear plants have several advantages in meeting base load requirements, land usage, raw material requirement and longer plant lives. "Solar and wind energy have their own drawbacks such as low energy generation-to-capacity ratio, requiring massive over-capacity and large spaces of land, especially for solar," he said.Quoting a statement from an international energy agency, Vyas said that fission-based nuclear power has historically been a large contributor to carbon-free electricity globally. Jitendra Singh , Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Prime Minister's Office; Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space, who was also present on the occasion, said the government is working to diversify nuclear power and its applications in the areas which were earlier not known.Singh said the government is planning to set up north India's first atomic power plant in Haryana. "Most of our nuclear power plants were earlier confined to the southern states of the country but now we have moved northwards. We will be having the first atomic nuclear energy plant installed at Gorakhpur in Haryana," he said.