- NEW DELHI -- Kakrapara
Atomic Power Station (KAPS), in the western city of Surat, is India's well-groomed
nuclear workhorse. Huge concrete domes enclose its two reactors, which
generate a surplus of power for the country. And when it comes to controlling
radiation leakage, KAPS is "our best station," says S.P. Sukhatme,
chairman of India's Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB).
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- That, it turns out, is bad news. KAPS may be India's
prized nuclear plant, but radiation emitted from its reactors is three
times as much as the international norm, says Mr. Sukhatme.
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- It's a shocking admission that puts the rest of the country's
nuclear-power plants in grave perspective. "The main implication is
that other nuclear-power plants are much worse than even Kakrapar,"
says Suren Gadekar, considered to be India's top antinuclear activist.
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- Four months ago, world leaders fretted about the possibility
of two nuclear-weapons rivals, India and Pakistan, approaching the brink
of war. That problem apparently on hold, India's nuclear scientists say
the country could still face an equally devastating nuclear catastrophe
ö without a shot being fired.
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- This time, the threat is not Pakistan or terrorists,
but India's power plants themselves. Some scientists say that the plants
are so poorly built and maintained, a Chernobyl-style disaster may be just
a matter of time.
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- "The fact that India's nuclear regulator acknowledges
that reactors in India are not operated to the standards of reactors in
the US and Europe is not much of a surprise," says Christopher Sherry,
research director of the Safe Energy Communication Council in Washington.
"But it is very disturbing."
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- India tested its first nuclear device in May 1974. In
1998, the country successfully conducted five underground nuclear tests,
heralding its entry into ga select group of countries capable of waging
nuclear war.
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- Today, the country has 14 nuclear power reactors including
two at KAPS. Most are modeled after a design first built in Shippingport,
Penn. in 1957, and considered by experts to be the most cost-effective
way to produce electricity through nuclear energy.
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- However only three of those nuclear reactors fall under
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) standards. The rest ö which
were built with local technology ö are accountable only to national
standards set by the AERB.
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- This February, Sukhatme asked the Nuclear Power Corporation
of India Ltd ö a government-owned manufacturer of nuclear plants ö
to plug leakage of water contaminated with tritium, a highly radioactive
substance, from reactors. "There is a clear need for reducing the
exposure to workers," he says.
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- Also earlier this year, the AERB ordered the closure
of India's first nuclear plant in the state of Rajasthan. The reactor that
put India on the nuclear world map developed a series of defects, starting
with "turbine-blade failures." Gradually the reactor was wrecked
by "cracks in the end-shields, a leak in the calandria overpressure
relief device, a leak in many tubes in the moderator heat exchanger."
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- While the government releases no information about leaks
or accidents at its nuclear power plants, Dhirendra Sharma, a scientist
who has written extensively on India's atomic-power projects, has compiled
figures based on his own reporting. "An estimated 300 incidents of
a serious nature have occurred, causing radiation leaks and physical damage
to workers," he says. "These have so far remained official secrets."
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- According to critics like Mr. Gadekar, India's nuclear-power
program has always been secretive because politicians use it as a cover
for the country's weapons program. "Right from Jawaharlal Nehru [India's
first prime minister] onward, our leaders have always claimed that the
nuclear-power program is a 'peaceful' program, whereas the weapons implications
were always there in the background," says Gadekar. "As a result,
secrecy has become a way of life for these people."
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- The chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission, Anil
Kakodkar, has repeatedly asserted that his group is doing what it can to
ensure that the country's power plants are safe. Still, leaks continues
to raise serious questions about safety.
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- Part of the problem, says N.M. Sampathkumar Iyangar,
a former manufacturer of nuclear reactor components, is that well-connected
manufacturers are able to cut deals with politicians in India's Department
of Energy, often selling defective parts, which are then used to build
reactors.
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- But others, like Dr. Kakodkar, say the real problem is
that new technology designed to upgrade safety at power plants is too expensive
for developing countries like India. According to Kakodkar, India should
not be held accountable to international standards until the international
community helps make such technology available to developing countries.
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- "Safety and technology cannot be divorced,"
he says.
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- http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1011/p07s01-wosc.html
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