Current Affairs- FAQ on Kudankulam issue- Part 2

ANNEXURE 1

1. The global trend on the use of nuclear energy for power generation.

Globally, as on date, 433 Nuclear reactors are operating in 30 countries and producing 366590 MW (e) and 65 reactors are under construction to produce 62592 MW (e). Further the following Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) are connected to respective grids after Fukushima accident on March‐2011:‐

      ‐ Chashapp Unit‐2 (300 MWe, PWR, Pakistan) – on 14th March 2011

      ‐ Lingao 4 (1000 MW, PWR, China) – on 3rd May 2011

      ‐ CEFR‐ China experimental Fast Reactor (20 MWe, FBR, China)‐ on 21^st
          July 2011

      ‐ Bushehr 1‐ (915 MWe, PWR, VVER, Iran)‐ on 3rd September 2011

The status in some other countries, post Fukushima, is summarized below:

Russia: 9 reactors are under construction. 14 reactors are further planned.

USA: There are proposals for over 20 new reactors.

France: Building a 1600 MWe unit at Flamanville for operation in 2012 and second to follow at Penly.

UK: Four 1600 MWe units are planned for operation in 2019

Germany: It had 17 reactors and it has not granted sanction for further life extension to 8 reactors among them that had completed design life. The design life of the remaining 9 will be completed by 2022. Germany announced that they will not consider further extension of life of these plants. There had been a debate in Germany about the need for nuclear power plants, even before Fukushima accident, based on sufficient availability of electrical energy from other sources and energy availability from neighboring nations.

Switzerland: It has 5 reactors in operation. It has decided to phase out Nuclear Power by 2034 on completion of their design life.

Japan: It has 54 Nuclear reactors. 11 reactors continued to be in operation even during earth quake and tsunami in Japan and are still in operation. The remaining

43 reactors were on shutdown/maintenance. Decisions were taken to start them after safety review and the first of these 43 reactors, has been restarted in August 2011.

Bangladesh has recently signed intergovernmental agreement with Russia to start construction of a new VVER plant in Bangladesh in November 2011.

Vietnam has signed an agreement recently with Russia for the establishment of their first nuclear power plant (VVER) and with a consortium from Japan to construct a second nuclear plant.

UAE continues work related to setting up of its first nuclear plant through a consortium in South Korea.

Turkey has initiated action for setting up its first nuclear power plant (VVER)

From the above, the trend appears to be on increased use of Nuclear Power in the global energy scenario.

2. Indian Experience on Nuclear Plants.

India has 20 reactors in operation in 6 different places all over the country. The first one started about 40 years back. India has an excellent record of performance with no incidents of radiation exposure to the public exceeding the allowable limit. The details can be seen from the Web site of NPCIL. India also has well trained personnel with knowledge and expertise. India has demonstrated capability in establishing, maintaining and operating Nuclear Power plants for power generation.

3. Radiation in the Environment around Nuclear Plants in India.

The DAE establishes Environmental Survey Laboratories at all the power plant sites well before a nuclear power plant goes in operation, and regularly monitor the radiological conditions in the environment. A comparison of the Environmental radiation doses at NPP sites during 2006 to 2010 is given fig 1 below.

Radiation doses measured by the Environmental Survey Laboratory around Kudankulam is given in Fig‐2 below.

Further in places like Manavalakuruchi, Kanyakumari, Karunagappalli, Chavara etc. where radioactive mineral deposits exist, the natural background levels are far in excess of those measured near the NPP sites. People live for generations in these places without any major health hazards.

4. Safety Features in KKNPP.

The reactor being built at KKNPP is advanced model of Russian VVER‐1000 MW Pressurised water reactor which is a leading type of reactor worldwide. The  design has been evolved from serial design of VVER plant and fall in the category of Advanced Light Water Reactor.  The salient features are:

      ‐Passive heat removal system to provide cooling for the removal of decay   heat.

      ‐Higher redundancy for safety system.

      ‐Double containment.

      ‐Additional shut down system like quick boron and emergency boron injection          systems.

      ‐Incorporation of core catcher to provide safety in the event of fuel melt down

      ‐Passive hydrogen management system

The safety features of KKNPP were comprehensively reviewed by a task force of NPCIL in the context of recent Fukushima accident. The report of the task force is available in the website of NPCIL and DAE.