Tuesday 15 March 2011

!!! Japan VS India - Safety in Nuclear Plant !!!

Many of us would be shocked on seeing the title of this document !!! As a matter of fact, I never encourage comparison !!! But I intentionally do the same to make you realize something which we have never thought about !!!


We all are aware about what has happened recently in Japan !!! Back-to-back attack !!! Two natural disasters joined together and shacked the nuclear plant of Japan !!! Now the great question before us is, can India withstand such a situation ?!?!? If some natural disaster occur in India - Can we Withstand ?!?!?!


Before going deep into this discussion, lets make some fundamentals clear !!!



  • Mr. Srikumar Bannerjee (Chairperson AEC )- has made clear that what happened in Japan was Chemical explosion and not Nuclear Explosion !!!
  • Plant was built to withstand earthquake !!! (since earthquakes are more common in Japan) But actual disaster was due to tsunami !!! Cooling System shut down was end result of tsunami which lead Japan to uncontrollable situation !!!
  • Tsunami Wave height was considered as 6.5 Feet !!! But actually it rose to about 10 feet !!! This lead to shutdown of power !!!
  • Japanese used Light Water reactor(either Boiled or pressurized) utilizing enriched Uranium-D !!!
So how India is equipped !!! 
  • Indian Power plants are built with the power to withstand Earthquake !!!
  • Tsunami levels were considered with high precision and care was taken to locate plants in areas higher than sea level.
  • Community living around Nuclear Plant in India are twice or thrice than those in Japan !!!
  • The feature of heavy water reactors to allow the burning of Uranium with slight to no enrichment capacities makes its usage more attractive !!! India has worked hard in developing Thorium based fuel cycle !!! While there is a limitation in the country's Uranium deposit, there are some greater treasuries of Thorium which can multiply the power with the equal mass of fuel by hundred times !!! The fact of Thorium being used in heavy water reactors has tied the growth of the two !!!
Many of us under estimate Indian technologies !!! But after going through this post, one has to change their views !!! Indian Nuclear Plants are MORE SAFER and can WITHSTAND MORE NATURAL CALAMITIES - though we can't eliminate such calamities !!! I have just made a brief presentation and considered some basic parameters only !!!

Also I salute the AEC Chairperson for his two statements !!!
  • “When there is a question of safety and if the costs increase, there will be no compromise. If the cost is too high then we won't have a nuclear plant.” It has to be viable, he said.
  • “We will get data from the Japanese and look for lacunae in our systems and improve things.”
Hope this post was useful !!! Please recommend this blog to your friends if u like !!! Please share ur views so that we can improve !!!

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