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Review of nuclear installations under way

By The Assam Tribune

NEW DELHI, April 17 � As a review of all the nuclear facilities in the country is under way, the authorities are factoring in the lessons learnt from the Fukushima episode and even beyond to ensure that the atomic installations are able to weather all the possible disasters, report PTI.

The upgradation in safety features of the nuclear plants will apply to the existing ones as well as the new ones, including the proposed Jaitapur plants.

The factors being taken into consideration include high intensity earthquakes, tsunamis that would trigger waves upto 15 metres, hurricane and floods, officials said.

The four task forces set up after the Japanese incident went into the safety features of the existing nuclear plants to see what can be done to upgrade these and incorporate these in the new ones.

The first task force studied Tarapur Atomic Plant (TAP) I and II, the second went into Rajasthan Atomic Plant (RAP) I and II, the third examined the Madras Atomic Plant (MAP) I and II while the fourth studied rest of the reactors, the officials said.

As part of the new measures, it has been decided that the new nuclear plants would not be constructed in high seismic zones of VI but at the most, zone III where there is plenty of space.

At present, most of India�s 20 nuclear plants are in seismic zone III and only one Narora is in Zone IV.

The officials insisted that the upgradation of the nuclear plants was a process initiated before Japan�s Fukushima incident where tsunami triggered by high intensity earthquake hit nuclear plants last month triggering scare about radiation leak which the authorities there are still trying to prevent.

�It is not that we became wise only after Fukushima. But that does not mean we should ignore what happened there,� an official said, adding the lessons learnt there are being taken into consideration in India�s safety upgrade process.

At the same time, the officials maintained that the systems in Indian nuclear plants were different from those of Japanese plants.

Explaining, they said there was multi-layered automatic system of cooling process in Indian nuclear plants while in the Japanese ones, the cooling was done through pump systems which failed in Fukushima once power supply went off due to tsunami.

With regard to the controversy over setting up of nuclear plants, including Jaitapur, close to sea, the officials rejected the contention of activists that it would damage the maritime life.

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