Soon after the killer tsunami triggered nuclear meltdowns, the Prime Minister of Japan Naoto Kan declared that his country was experiencing its biggest crisis since World War II. Four reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Stations led to large releases of radioactivity into the environment. These reactors were built with all fool-proof mechanisms…taking into account the fact that they would be operating in a seismically unsafe environment.
Unfortunately, the huge tsunami unleashed by the massive earthquake caused a series of problems at the nuclear power stations. The plant at Fukushima Daiichi relied on pumps powered by electricity to keep cooling water circulating. The tsunami waves knocked out electric supply from the grid. Standby generators kept at the plant for such contingencies could not be used because of the flooding and damage caused by the tsunami. Batteries, which were intended only to keep the cooling going until the generators came on, were soon exhausted.
All efforts made by 800 employees at the plants to pump sea water into the coolants were fruitless. As a last resort, the Japanese authorities made frenzied efforts to dump water from the helicopters, a tactic normally used to combat forest fires. It is being feared, the radioactive releases which spewed from the nuclear plants could cause a bigger misery to the people of Japan than the Hiroshima-Nagasaki catastrophe.
The disaster in Japan has prompted many governments to press the pause button on nuclear energy. The United States had not installed any new reactor for more than 30 years – since an accident occurred in its nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island. Only recently it started thinking to construct some nuclear power stations. But after the Fukushima crisis, the Obama administration signalled that it will take another look at its policy of expanding nuclear power. European countries too are flashing yellow lights on further construction. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel suspended for three months a decision on whether to extend the life of that country’s nuclear plants. The Swiss government also suspended plans to replace and build new nuclear plants pending a review of the Japanese accident.
In India too, doubts are raised over the safety of nuclear power plants. Many nuclear experts are arguing that in a thickly populated country like India, with lax regulations, poor enforcement and pitiful emergency responses, a nuclear power plant meltdown can be much more catastrophic. Unlike in other countries, nuclear plants in India are located in close proximity to the civilian population. Kalpakkam, situated near Chennai, is not far away from the East Coast and the area is a seismically active zone. There is another nuclear project at Kudandulam, a place very close to Kanyakumari, which is also quake-prone. While the Japanese evacuated people in 30 km radius of the nuclear reactors within a few hours of the tsunami, such an exercise would be unthinkable in India, thanks to the population density.
The proposed 9900 Mega Watt nuclear power plant in Jaitapur also falls in a seismically sensitive area in Maharashtra. Calling for an immediate halt to the Jaitapur nuclear power project in Maharashtra, the CPI(M), which had vociferously opposed the nuclear deal with the U.S., demanded that the entire issue be re-examined in the backdrop of the developments in tsunami-hit Japan.
EPR TECHNOLOGY?
The Jaitapur project is to be set up with imported nuclear plants from the French company, Areva, and the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) technology used in these reactors has not been tested anywhere in the world.
It is incorrect to believe that earthquakes alone could cause major nuclear accidents. Human error also led to some of the devastating nuclear mishaps. In a few days, we will be observing the 25th anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear accident which happened at Chernobyl.
CHERNOBYL
On April 26, 1986 – a series of small human errors added up to create a nuclear catastrophe. It happened at Chernobyl in Ukraine (at that time in Soviet Union). The accident was so terrible that nuclear fallout was even reported in the rainfall as far away as Ireland. During the days following the accident, hundreds of workers tried to quell the reactor fire and stop the escape of radioactive materials. Liquid Nitrogen was pumped into the reactor core to cool it down. Helicopters dumped neutron-absorbing materials into the exposed core to prevent it from going critical. Sand and other fire-fighting materials were also dropped into the core to help stop the graphite fire. After the fires were brought under control, construction of what is called “the sarcophagus” began.
The word “sarcophagus” is usually used to describe the highly structured coffins the ancient Egyptians used to entomb their dead. In this case, the sarcophagus is a structure erected by using about 3,00,000 tons of concrete that surrounds the reactor. It was designed to contain the radioactive waste inside. It has served its purpose so far…but now, 25 years after the accident, the sarcophagus has become worn down. It is possible that an intense event like an earthquake or tornado could lead to its collapse. This would be catastrophic, as radioactive dust would once again rain down on the surrounding areas. Scientists and engineers are working on ways to repair or replace the structure.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that the radiation release from Chernobyl accident was 200 times that of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombs combined. There was a steep rise in the incidents of thyroid cancer in the surrounding areas because much of the radiation was emitted in the form of Iodine-131, which collects in the thyroid gland. The Chernobyl accident required nearly a million emergency responders and clean-up workers. A large area was rendered uninhabitable. Thousands of people were killed, though the exact number of deaths remains unknown to this day.
India’s nuclear programme also is not incident-free. In 1993, a fire in the turbine room of the Narora Atomic Power Station was detected early and extinguished before any radioactivity was released. In 2004, tsunami waters entered the Kalpakkam nuclear plant up to 10.42 meters. Fortunately the turbines were placed at 10.68 meters height. That means, a Japan like situation could have happened here, if the water had reached a further height of 26 feet.
Now that the ugly side of the so-called “clean energy” is exposed, we need to review our nuclear ambitions and introspect on our readiness to combat a catastrophe. Considering our poor tract record in dealing with a gas tragedy in a chemical factory in Bhopal, setting up new nuclear reactors should be the last thing we should think about.
Some top officials of the nuclear establishment are claiming that ‘all is well’ in India. They are trying to allay the fears in the public that a nuclear catastrophe similar to the one that has devastated Japan is most unlikely to happen here. They claim that nuclear reactors in India are built with state-of-the-art technology and an accident could never occur here. Remember Murphy’s law that states: whatever can go wrong will go wrong. Titanic was dubbed ‘unsinkable’. It sank however. The recent powerful earthquake in Japan has even changed Earth’s pace which decreased the day by 1.8 mega seconds! There is no such thing called foolproof. The Indian government should understand the hypocrisy of the United States, which is pushing a 150 billion dollar market of nuclear energy in our country but not building nuclear plants in its own country.