Narora fire

When the turbine generator unit of the Narora atomic power plant caughtfire on March 31, the department of atomic energy was quick to boast aboutthe efficient working of the plant's indigenously-developed safety systems.The 220-mw plant in Uttar Pradesh is equipped with two safety systems; oneshuts down operations and the other cools the nuclear reaction. Both safetysystems a.re triplicated to ensure that even if one is out of order, the other two are available.

But a post-mortem by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board shows despiteall the well-described procedures, it took two hours to control the fire andthree more to put it out. The board brands the delay a "severe safety lapse."The turbine hall fire, which was probably caused by an electrical spark,spread to the main building area. The board says only then did the circuitbreaker trip and isolate the generator circuit. Even smoke sensors inthe generator areadid not detect. thefire immediately.Taking the delayin putting out theblaze, the boardclassified the disaster at LevelThree on theInternationalNuclear EventScale.

The loss from Ithe fire has been estimated at Rs 150 crore.