The Meltdown

The fallout of the Japanese disaster and its impact on government policy on nuclear power

Blasts have occurred at 3 reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi plant and yesterday there were reports of fire breaking out in reactor number 4. 

Reactor 4 is reaching a critical stage. Japan issues level 6 nuclear emergency; highest since the Chernobyl tragedy in Russia during the cold war era. Chernobyl was level 7. Scientists are talking about an impending nuclear meltdown.

Events in Japan have a far reaching global impact. From government policies to stock markets everything has been affected. The Nikkei has crashed 17% in two trading days, its worst performance in 40 years! Global stock markets too have tanked.

 Governments world over are having a relook at their N plans. German Chancellor, Angela Merkel has declared the temporary shutdown of 7 nuclear reactors. These 7 reactors, all of which were installed before 1980, are among the oldest in Germany. A year ago she has announced that the life of all nuclear reactors in Germany would be extended. But the recent turn of events has forced the German government to rethink their N strategy. The decision may have a political backdrop to it considering forthcoming elections but it is significant nonetheless. The reactors are being shut down for 3 months.

Back home the focus has shifted on our dear environment minister Mr. Jairam Ramesh. The Jaitapur N plant in Maharashtra is in the centre of this debate. The plant resides in a seismic level 3 zone and thus is susceptible to medium level earthquakes. According to the geological survey of India data there have been 92 earthquakes in the region from 1985 to 2005, the biggest one measuring 6.2 on the richter scale. Various organizations and the locals have come out to demand the government to rethink on the plant. The environment minister told reporters that the Jaitapur plant will undergo stringent scrutiny to determine whether it will be able to withstand an event of the same magnitude as the Fukushima plant. 

The Jaitapur N plant is situated 430 km from India’s financial capital of Mumbai. The proximity of the Fukushima plant from Tokyo has become a matter of grave concern. In fact if the Jaitapur plant comes into operation, Mumbai will lie between 2 N plants, one at Jaitapur and the other at Tarapur. The Tarapur plant lies within 150 km of Mumbai! Imagine the impact of N disaster at one of these centres. It will be significant and of unimaginable consequences.

A different angle was brought to light yesterday when I was watching news on Times Now. A gentleman participating in the protest against the Jaitapur plant said, “Japan is paying the price of giving in to the N lobby and India should avoid following in Japans footsteps”. We all know how much talk has been done about the Indo American Nuclear deal, our PM declared it as a landmark deal in this history of the nation. So, has India too given in to the ‘Nuclear lobby’? 

Nuclear tech is a high risk technology; accepted. But what alternative do we have? No technology comes close to its efficiency. Coal plants are highly polluting and how much of coal reserves do we have? Hydro alone can’t satisfy our needs. And India is far away from having a considerable contribution of non renewable source of energy; in fact it is so low that it isn’t worth mentioning. Given this backdrop and the fact that electricity demand supply gap is increasing year after year, nuclear energy is the only viable option in the medium term. No doubt that nuclear energy is a risky technology, but a growing economy needs energy, especially India. And at this point of time nuclear is the only option that we can turn to.

So are we gambling with our future?...