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THE NUCLEAR PATH

India Confronts a Devil’s Choice

by Prakash Chandra writes from New Delhi
**The nuclear plants offer a choice — maybe a devil's choice — which cannot be ignored as India targets 10,000 megawatts of nuclear energy by year 2000.
NEAR a dusty shanty town on the banks o( the holy river Ganga stands the latest edifk-e to India s nuclear prowess.
There stands the second 220 megawatt unit of the Narora Atomic Power Station, gifted to her home state of Uttar Pradesh, northern In dla. by the late l*rlme Minister Indira Gandhi It was a bld to Industrialise the country's most populated state
It is the latest addition to the first 220 MW unit at Narora which started operat Ing in 1989 Both units demonstrate the jatt accorr^tU that the country will have to live with nuclear power
Already, It is having night mares In mid October last year, a powerful earthquake struck and almost devastated the Uttar Kashi region tn the Himalayan foothills, just 200 kilometres from the Narora nuclear power plants. Over 1.500 people were killed and thousands of houses crumbled
Scientists and critics arc now worried as they found the massive cooling towers of the Narora nuclear plants shaking
"No damage has been recorded to the plant here. Fortunately, the power station had been shut down for main tenance," said a plant manager "But certainly the first earthquake to hit the region after the nuclear plant came Into existence 1s a grim reminder The danger will remain for ever."
Scientists point out that in the seismic zone map of India, Narora lies near the boundary between zone III and IV and not far away from the Himalayan region of very high seismicity. The very selection of the site was controversial from the beginning, and It had more to do with the "emergency- powers of the late Prime Minister Sanjay Gandhi, than sound logic and ground realities.
The nuclear establishment, of course, reels out a considerable number of safety mea sures taken to make the Narora Atomic Power Station "absolutely safe." For example, the seismicity level for which the plant has been designed is much higher than the level recorded at the site. Stability of the foundation soil under seismic conditions" has been fully Investigated and tested according to Internationally accepted procedures. The seismic safety of the power plant structures and equipment was taken Into accounl during the design phase
The high priest of the atomic energy establishment. Dr PK Iyengar. Is as con fl dent as ever about the safety factors at Narora His typical reply to cynlas Is "We are tn such a safe region that people should take shelter at the plant site at the time of an earthquake ’ Dr Iyengar Is the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.
Mr YSR Prasad, project director, says the safety system at Narora has been consider ably scaled up. "There is now an automatic shut-off within a period of 1.4 seconds." he points out.
All these have not con vlnced the environmental critics of the nuclear estab lishment They worry about the fact that neither newspapers nor the public Is taken into confidence when nuclear acci dents take place
Dr Iyengar Insists that out siders do not understand the intricacies of the problem and the fears get exaggerated.
Critics point out that right from the days of Madame Gandhi when she ordered the first underground nuclear test at Pokhran in the Rajasthan desert In 1974, the Atomic Energy Commission has been virtually secretive about Its activities except by releasing an annual report which does not tell anybody very much
Some insiders believe this is because of the virtual Isola lion of the nuclear establish ment from the International community after the test.This Is Ironic as India Is one of the governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency In Vienna and remains an active campaigner for providing technical assistance to developing countries for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
"Even if we reject the bombstn-the-basement theory, the nuclear establishment has done nothing to make nuclear energy acceptable to the people. It remains clogged In secrecy like the Defence Ministry, says a leading environmental activist.
There are more than 200.000 Indian nuclear scien lists, technicians and engi neers who specialise in nu clear technology — a big first tn the Third World Indeed, the successful commissioning of the second unit of the Narora Power Station Is a sig niflcant landmark In the field of nuclear development. Nuclear planners now ex poet a chain of locally designed and standardised pressurised heavy-water reactors to be built locally Firms like Larsen and Toubro have developed special skills In fabricating and building nuclear power re actors
India is the only developing country outside the nuclear club which has demonstrated the capability to design and construct pressurised heavy water reactors All the major components like fuel tubes, coolant channels, uranium pel-lets and heavy water required are produced In the country After Narora I went Into op eration 1n 1989, several systems — which have no direct bearing on the nuclear part, but form part of the secondary systems like turbines standby power supplies and fuel han dling — have been Improved This has given confidence to local engineers to accelerate the expansion of the nuclear power programme.
The two units of the Kakrapar power station (235 MW each) are expected to go into production tn early 1992 and 1993. the first two units or Kalga and the third and fourth units UB 235 MW) of Rajasthan Atomic Power Station in 1994 and 1996. Dr Iyengar predicts that the W-get of 10.000 MW of nuclear Aergy by the turn of the century may be achieved by the year 2002 or 2003 Even then, the contribution of nuclear energy to the overall energy output in the country will be much less than that being obtained in many developed countries
Given the ecological impacts of large hydroelectric projects, thrown into bold relief by the recent earthquake, and the Inherently Inefficient functioning of many of the thermal power projects round the country, the nuclear plants offer a choice — maybe a devil s choice — which can hardly be Ignored.