Stating that seismic activity in India differs from that in Japan, Anil Kakodkar, former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission, said here on Monday that the possibility of a tsunami at Jaitapur, the site for a proposed nuclear power plant, was low.
“Seismic activity in Japan and India are two different things. There are certain locations in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. So, I won't say a tsunami will not occur, but its intensity will not be that high. And specifically, since Jaitapur is on a plateau, the possibility of a tsunami there is low. Though it's along the seashore, it's at a [considerable] height,” Dr. Kakodkar said in his lecture on nuclear energy at the inaugural function of a parliamentary training centre at the Vidhan Bhavan.
N-stations can be in seismic zones
He said building nuclear power stations even in seismic zones four and five was not an impossible task. “In Japan, 54 plants are in zone five. The U.S. has 10 of them in this zone. There are different kinds of reactors [designed] after studying what kind of earthquake can take place,” he said.
Closer home, the Kalpakkam power station was also hit by the tsunami in 2004, but “it has started again,” Dr. Kakodkar pointed out.
Japan echo: global review
In the wake of the catastrophe in Japan, however, there would be an international review of reactor designs, he said. Citing International Atomic Energy Agency updates, he said blasts at the Fukushima plant in Japan were in the reactor building and not in the containment area. The accident rating of the incident was 4 as opposed to 5 for the Three Mile Island accident and 7 for Chernobyl.
The nuclear scientist sought to dispel concerns over radioactivity, impact on marine life and environment and waste management with reference to the Jaitapur project. He said there was “no need to doubt” reactors of the government-owned French company Areva, which were being used for power generation in France too.
Farming around plant
Dr. Kakodkar said farming was being carried out in the green belt around the Tarapur power station. As for concerns over marine ecology, the water released from a reactor's condenser was five degrees warmer than normal water, which could cause no harm to the marine ecology.
On spent fuel, Dr. Kakodkar said: “We have the technology for a repository [of spent fuel]. It is said about Jaitapur that there is no discussion on waste management. High-level waste never remains in the power station; it goes to the reprocessing plant. When the proposal for a reprocessing plant comes up, discussions on waste fuel will be held.”
Energy options: nuclear, solar
Dr. Kakodkar said that with rising energy needs, India needed to stress on nuclear and solar energy to overcome power scarcity.
“There is no doubt that we have to give importance to solar energy, but we cannot get it 24 hours. And, storing it on a large scale is not economically viable. For today's needs, we have to use all the energy resources [oil, fossil fuels, wind, solar], but for the future, nuclear and solar are the only two options,” he said.
Along with energy security, he stressed on achieving energy independence as well.
‘Intelligent buyers'
“India is neither among reactor suppliers, nor buyers. We are an experienced nation and whatever we import, we will enforce modifications as per our conditions. We are intelligent buyers,” he said.
Keywords: Jaitapur nuclear power plant, Anil Kakodkar
Jaitapur in Ratnagiri district is near to the Koynanagar area which has been the epicentre of many quakes the major one was in 1967 after the dam construction. Ratnagiri also receives heavy moonsoon rains that stop the Konkan railway from operating. There are landslides in that area during monsoons. Gujarat state had a major quake in 2001 where people were fearing anything worst happening to Kakrapar atomic power station. 1993 Latur earthquake in Maharashtra was also a great disaster. Jaitapur comes in seismic zone 4 as per the quake zones in india shown on wikipedia. Even Mumbai city is shown in zone 4 and there is BARC at Mumbai. Jaitapur will be experimenting with 6 reactors each of 1350MW cap which is not small and a technology developed by French Ariva. ARiva is facing problems with these reactors in a project at Finland. GE made the reactors at Tarapur for NPCIL-10 km area around that plant became permanently useless for fishing activity. The same GE has made reactors for Japan three of which have exploded. Japan took a foolish risk by going for nuclear energy when it lies in seismic zone 5. Chernobyl disaster made area of 4000 sq.km unlivable for humans. When contribution of nuclear energy to India electricity output is only 3 %, there is no point in encouraging such bigcatastrophe causing technologies. Use solar, biomass, wind, prevent power theft, control population, prevent industrialists like Mukesh Ambani from consuming 6 lakh electricity units per month, conserve the water and generate energy from water. Right now the monsoon water goes to the arabian sea.
While Dr.Kakodkar raises some valid points about solar-energy alone not being viable, s.a. because it is not available 24-hours, and storing energy at such a large-scale is almost impossible given today's technology. However, there is no mention of wind energy. Also Dr.Kakodkar skirts around the question of spent nuclear-fuel reprocessing, which is where are large part of the danger lies. We are talking of meltdown, but that is not the only risk. Anyone can research a little on the so called 'minor incidents' that keep happening in Atomic power plants, which are deliberately hushed-down, toned-down and/or never reported. Read somewhere that the AREVA supplied plants would use MOX fuel, which is produced from reprocessed spent nuclear fuel, but what very few people know is that MOX fuel once used, cannot be reprocessed further, i.e. is not at all a 'recycleable' fuel, as it is often made out to be. On the other hand, MOX's nuclear toxicity an order or magnitude higher. One can read the imminent danger at Reactor#3 at Fukushima, Japan. A meltdown / nuclear fallout from a MOX plant will release Plutonium, and Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24100 years. What is really needed, world-wide, is a powerconsumption revolution. It is not going to happen overnight, and people are better to 'suffer through' the shortage, than through a radioactive fallout, and learn to be frugal with power. This is not for individual consumers alone, but for manufacturing industries and other industries as well.In the end we need to think, as to what are we leaving behind for our children and grandchildren. Politicians who fly away to western countries to have medical procedures done, will be first to fly away in case of a nuclear emergency. Ditto for govt. officials who have pocketed huge sums of money to lobby in favour-of, dangerous technology.
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