The Koodankulam nuclear plant was weeks away from going critical. A successful hot run had just been carried out,only some minor improvements were now being addressed. The fuel loading was to start soon and,within days of that,the chain reaction was to be initiated. The big objective was to link the first of the two 1,000 MW reactors to the grid by the end of this year and the second one within the next six months. There was considerable excitement also because this would have been Indias first 1,000 MW nuclear reactor to go operational.
However,an unanticipated turn of events now threatens to derail this schedule. While China has gone ahead and commissioned four nuclear reactors after the Fukushima incident,the Indian nuclear programme seems to be getting caught in a self-defeating quagmire.
It now emerges that in the run-up to operationalising the reactor,the one mandatory task especially after the Fukushima incident that had to be done was a detailed safety drill with the local population. This aspect received a fair amount of attention as the NPCIL (Nuclear Power Cooperation of India Ltd) officials,along with district authorities,reached out to neighbouring villages,educating them about drills to follow during evacuation procedures,so that people knew what had to be done in case a nuclear accident or radiation leakage were to occur.
This exercise seems to have boomeranged on the DAE and the NPCIL. According their internal assessment,the naysayers in Koodankulam went on to cite this effort as a confirmation of an impending disaster. Officers had to field questions on why they were conducting such an exercise if they did not foresee a danger to the plant. Soon,the local church was involved,anti-nuclear activists got into the fray and every reasonable argument fell by the wayside. Within days of appealing in favour of the project,Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa changed her line asking the Centre to stop work. The stir was eventually called off with the promise of an assembly resolution demanding the same.
So instead of focusing on loading the fuel and getting the chain reaction started,for which a final nod of the regulator is required,the nuclear top brass was back on the table trying to figure out what all it would take to suspend work because certain emergency systems have to be kept running in maintenance mode. For instance,the desalination plant has to be kept running to prevent it from corrosion.
Nothing could have been more regressive because Koodankulam is yet to be judged objectively on its safety standards,the ostensible reason for all the outrage.
Consider this. The Fukushima reactor site was able to withstand the earthquake,problems occurred with the tsunami which followed and resulted in inundation which led to back-up generators going bust. So in Koodankulam,four 100 per cent capacity generators have been physically placed at different locations and at about 15-16 metres above the mean sea-level. The plant itself is to 6-7 metres above MSL.
Koodankulam has double containment structures made up of steel for the reactor that during the hot run withstood 1.2 times the peak pressure generated due to loss of coolant the leakage was well below acceptable limits after the safety test. The site,incidentally,has an external containment structure which can withstand a plane crash one of the safety features emerging after 9/11.
The site is installed with a core catcher which comes into play in case fuel begins to melt. The core catcher automatically releases elements which mix with fuel and form less harmful silicates. This was not present in Fukushima.
Another problem at Fukushima was the hydrogen explosion caused by hydrogen leak. In Koodankulam,a passive hydrogen recombiner has been installed that will automatically start operating in the event of a leak and combine the hydrogen with oxygen. In addition,a passive heat removal system has been installed to ensure removal of excess steam and maintenance of acceptable temperature.
Clearly,the safety effort in Koodankulam is unprecedented in comparison to other plant sites,yet the project has hit a wall. Like any new venture,setting up a nuclear plant brings with it certain inherent risks which have not only been overblown in this case,but argued without facts. Even Japan,which has experienced the Fukushima disaster,has given the go-ahead to the second stage of its fast breeder programme. China has three dedicated companies constructing nuclear reactors 28 of them are under construction with a view to reduce dependence on hydrocarbons.
The world,as is evident,is trying to move beyond Fukushima while incorporating the lessons learnt from the tragic event. Far from prophecies of nuclear power fading after the incident,the atomic energy sector is seeking to innovate with the help of dogged political support on the global scale.
India,on the other hand,seems to be taking a turn for the worse. Koodankulam is not a safety issue any longer it has turned into a significant political question for the Manmohan Singh government. The response will more or less determine whether the government has the political energy to sustain a progressive agenda one that it had so proudly claimed with the India-US nuclear deal.
pranab.samanta@expressindia.com
