A cloud o criticism forms over the proposal to set up a high-power nuclear plant at Kudangulam in Tamil Nadu
INDIA's nuclear power dream on the
proposed Kudangularn project is floating again in the corridors of the Nuclear
Power Corporation, as was recently disclosed by R Chidambaram, chairperson,
Atomic Energy Commission, in the
founder's day address at the Bhabha
Atomic Research Centre, Bombay, that
negotiations with the Russian government to set up two sectors of 1,000 mw
each at Kudangulam, had progressed
well.
Interestingly, while Chidambaram
was giving wings to Indian nuclear
power dreams in October last week,
European countries were pleading with
Bulgaria to shut down the oldest of its
nuclear reactors on the Danube.
In return for this shut-down, the
European Community offered Bulgaria
three months supply of free coal or electricity, plus further safety checks at its reactor.
Although the peaceful application of
nuclear energy is no more peaceful in
developed nations, resurfacing of the
project at Kudangulam near Nagarcoil
in Thirunelvely district of southern
Tamil Nadu, bordering Kerala, manifests that our leaders and nuclear scientists are still myopic. The Kudangulam
project was proposed in 1987 as the first
nuclear power plant to be obtained
from the former Soviet Union, based on
the VVER-440 Light Water Reactor technology which had been cold-storaged
for various reasons. The construction
was planned jointly by Kerala and Tamil
Nadu - prime beneficiaries of the project.
However, when it was first proposed, the Kudangulam project received
flak because of its proximity to the environmentally sensitive Western Ghats
region. As its location is planned on the
southern tip of the Indian subcontinent,
there were fears of its possible adverse
impacts on thousands of fisherpeople in
the coastal area of Kanniyakumari district of Tamil Nadu. Considering the
fact that the region lay in the path of the
southwest monsoon, a nuclear power
plant at Kudangulam was seen as a
destabilising factor.
But the real reason behind the freezing of Kudangulam project was not
environmental hazards or safety concerns. "It was economic concerns,"
observes R V G Menon, a renowned
expert on nuclear issues and principal of
Engineering College, Kannur. Rightly,
mid-70s onwards, many developed
nations have realised that nuclear power
is no longer economically viable. The
nuclear power industry suffered heavy
setbacks due to this reality. But still, they
pin their hopes on the Third World
countries. The revival of Kudangulam
project is clearly an indication of this.
Menon questions if there has been any
changes in favour of the economic viability and safety measures of setting up a
nuclear power plant like Kudangulam.
Whether Indian experts can distinguish
a dream from doom is of prime importance.
The Kudangulam project is proposed to be an answer to the acute
power shortage of the southern states -
Tamil Nadu and Kerala. But this currently proposed VVER Russian technology for the project has displayed
serious problems in eastern Europe,
according to Surendra Gadekkar,
nuclear scientist and editor of
Anumukthi. "As the proposed technology itself is unsafe, how can our nuclear
power authorities confidently go ahead
with this project?" he asks. Also, as the
project is importing an exotic technology, he observed that technicians from
other Indian nuclear power plants -
most of which are CANDU-type reactors
- would not be competent to operate
the Kudangulam plant. Apart form
this, he added that as a location in
the southern portion of the subcontinent, "the power from Kudangulam
project will have heavy transmission
losses".
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