Bhubaneswar, Nov. 7: Atomic energy secretary and director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) Shekhar Basu today said the department was willing to set up a nuclear power plant if the state government provided them land for the project.

"Nuclear power is one of the largest sources of electricity in India after thermal, hydro and renewable sources of electricity," he said while speaking on the sidelines of the 11th annual convocation of KIIT University here today.

"Odisha can be a good site for such a plant and can get a major share of electricity as per the power sharing formula," said Basu, providing an option to the state government to solve the power crisis.

At present, there are 21 nuclear power reactors in the country with a total installed capacity of 5,780 megawatt. These are located in Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.

The university conferred D.Sc. degree (Honoris Causa) to Sir John E. Walker who won the Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1997. It also conferred the degree to four others - professor at ETH and University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland, Hans Hengartner, chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation and secretary of department of space A. S. Kiran Kumar, secretary of department of atomic energy and chairman of Atomic Energy Commission Sekhar Basu, and chancellor of S-VYASA University, Bangalore, H. R. Nagendra.

Eminent economist and member of NITI Aayog Bibek Debroy was conferred the DLitt degree (Honoris Causa).

Three students - Manisha Priyadarshini, Payel Giri and Preeti Kumari - won the Founder's Gold medals for their all-round performance. Another 15 students were awarded the Chancellor's Gold medal while 25 students got the Vice-chancellor's Silver medal. Thirty-nine research scholars were awarded doctorate degrees. As many as 4,612 students of the 2014-15 batch received their degrees at the convocation ceremony.