Are We Prepared?

 

Are We Prepared?

11^th march 2011, Japan was struck by a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. The Quake, Tsunami and now the nuclear disaster has been called ‘the greatest tragedy to strike Japan since World War 2’. The third largest economy and the most advanced country in the east is trying to cope with this calamity. But it seems a very uphill task. Looking at this disaster brings up question in the mind and that is “what will happen if such an accident or disaster occurs in India?” Is the Indian government or the people prepared to tackle an event of this magnitude? Are we prepared?

Japan’s Geography makes it very vulnerable to earthquakes. It has a long history of major earthquakes and sometimes minor shocks even occur daily. The Japanese have always been in the forefront of earthquake technology be it construction of earthquake resistant buildings or earthquake prediction systems. It is this preparedness of the Japanese that has ensured that the death toll is fewer than what it could have been. So when it comes to critical installations like the Fukushima nuclear plant one must assume that the Japanese must have taken utmost care to make it as resistant to natural calamities as possible. Yes it was constructed to withstand natural calamities. But what happened on Friday was something unusual: It was a deadly combination of a strong earthquake and a tsunami which struck the nuclear plant and damaged it.

The Fukushima plant case has raised serious concerns about the security of Indian N plants. Let us see which of the Indian plants can face such a massive calamity.

As we can see the following plants (operational and proposed) are situated very close to the coast –

·         Tarapur

·         Kaiga

·         Kalpakkam

·         Kundakulam

·         Jaitapur

·         Mithi Virdi

Of these the ones situated along the eastern coast are more prone to a tsunami, like the one in 2004. So how prepared are these plants? Have the Indian authorities, the NPCIL taken adequate measures to safeguard our nuclear installations? Let us try to find these answers.

Scientists say India’s nuclear power plants have fool-proof safety profiles; they have been designed with worst-case scenarios in mind. The safety features of Indian nuclear plants have to be rechecked to assess whether they can tackle inoperable situations, says former Atomic Energy Commission chairman and its current member, M R Srinivasan, who has visited the Fukushima plant. Once details emerge about the Japanese nuclear incident, Indian nuclear scientists are likely to highlight the stress points and prepare a detailed safety audit for nuclear plants in India, especially their preparedness in unforeseen circumstances.

Scientists say that they plants at Kaiga and kalpakkam are quite safe. In fact the Kalpakkam plant was almost unaffected by the 2004 tsunami. Scientists attribute this to the decision to install all electrical at a height of 50 ft above ground. That’s why none of the electrical was submerged when the tsunami struck the area. In addition the Kaiga plant is located quite far away from the coast.

Similarly, when Gujarat was struck by an earthquake in 2001, it had no impact on the Kakrapar atomic power station near Surat.

A nuclear plant is designed to the geographical conditions of the area. The thickness and the height of their walls are planned considering the area where a plant is set up.  Looking at the Fukushima tragedy we can say that the plant designers did not anticipate an earth quake of this magnitude plus a tsunami.

Now, given the intensity of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, nuclear scientists will have to be prepared for extreme, or inoperable, situations.

Keeping this in mind the National Disaster Management Authority came out with a report, ‘National Disaster Management Guidelines: Management of Nuclear and Radiological Emergencies’. The report lays down the guidelines for disaster management, the roles and responsibility of various stakeholders and discusses the strategy for implementation of the plan. You can find the full report at the link given below.

National Disaster Management Guidelines report