Japan's Tragedy and Lessons for India

THE third explosion in four days that rocked the earthquake damaged Fukushima nuclear plant in northeast Japan early on Tuesday has understandably heightened fears in India over the safety of our own nuclear reactors from natural catastrophes. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s assurance in Parliament that Indian nuclear facilities are safe and that he was ordering a review of all the nuclear installations in the country may be good in so far as it was designed to stave off any panic reactions, but there is no room for complacency. India already has three nuclear plants in Kalpakkam (Tamil Nadu), Tarapur (Maharashtra) and Kakrapar (Gujarat) near the seaside. Indeed, with the requirement for large quantity of water for cooling at a nuclear plant and sea being the largest water body, seaside makes an ideal location for such plants. In December 2004 Kalpakkam was hit by a tsunami, but mercifully, the reactors were safe. Yet, there can be no guarantee that in future nature would spare the reactors there if adequate safety standards are not maintained.
Significantly, out of the 20 nuclear power plants in India, only two in Tarapur have boiling water reactors as the Fukushima nuclear plant has. Besides, seismic activity is much higher around Japan than it is in India. What India needs to watch out for most is the 21 new reactors that it plans to buy. Indian engineers will take time to grasp new and unfamiliar technologies — a dangerous situation in case of an accident. Take Jaitapur in Maharashtra for instance. The reactors proposed there are based on a technology that is untested elsewhere. In fact, nuclear power technology is inherently risk-prone and India would have to exercise extreme caution in dealing with safety issues.
While it is imperative that safety standards be rigorously followed, it would be dangerous to succumb to the anti-nuclear power lobby and reverse the direction of going in for nuclear power stations. India’s requirements for power would be huge in coming years and this country can ill afford to ignore this form of harnessing energy. What is vital, however, is that lessons be learnt from the recent Fukushima experience where the blasts in reactors have caused widespread trepidation.