The
disaster of nuclear reactors in Fukushima in Japan has been tending fears in India. The top nuclear officials of India were saying that the existing reactors of the country are safe and the next generation of power plants will be even safer. But, some of the Indian nuclear experts told that the nuclear establishment in the country is been secretive and it is impossible to estimate the safety of the reactors.
However, the concerns on the nuclear safety in India are not just imaginary. If we look upon the last accident during 1993 that took place at the Narora atomic power plant is not far from the capital of India, New Delhi. During that time, the head of the countrys Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, Dr. A. Gopalakrishnan said that the major fire which took place in the Narora station got the reactor pretty close to meltdown. He added that the early morning blaze knocked out all the power to the plant and there by leaving the temperature of the reactor to rise out of control.
Gopalakrishna continued that a group of young engineers has worked by leaving no sign to the outside world and the youngsters took the decision of their own, not including any supervisory advice. He concluded that the people grabbed flashlights and climbed inside the reactor structure and has taken the right steps to get a hold of the situation under control. If the engineers could not take the correct steps then the two major cities namely Meerut and Aligarh would have been evacuated completely.
On the other hand, the critics were complaining that the Indias nuclear establishments need to have much more transparency. The deputy director of the Center for Science and Environment, Chandra Bhushan said that Indian nuclear establishment is directly correlated to the countrys defense establishment. He stated that the information that deals with the safety and potential radiation hazards was not revealed in the public domain. However, he said that the issue is predominantly critical because, India is preparing for a six fold increase in its nuclear generation capacity by adding up the new reactors from France, United States and some other major countries.
He quoted that as India is densely populated country, if something happens as in the same manner of Japan, then the affect will be huge. He asked that who will be liable if something happens and questioned that does the government tie out the companies or will the companies pay for them. Srikumar Banerjee, currently the head of the Indias Atomic Energy Commission recently reported to the media that Fukushima raised concerns for the nuclear establishment of India which also includes the need to frequently assess its nuclear safety.
