COVER STORY
reactors and some nuclear scientists being Unanswered questions
assassinated around the world by major
geopolitical players.
The first , second and third generation
reactors are fraught with design flaws,
radiation leaks, contamination of water
bodies, etc. Despite all these disadvantages,
at present around 14% of the world’s energy
and 3% of India’s energy is produced from
nuclear sources. France is producing 76%
of its total energy safely and this should be
Nor did we the criteria for India to look at this as
research why an option.
with all pure Dense nuclear power grid on Indian coastline
nuclear reserves, will be a disastrous blunder as in case of
war these are sitting ducks for direct attack
for the last four or sabotage. India is targeting to scale up
decades the spent nuclear capacity five times by 2020. For
that, India has struck nuclear deals with nine
reactor fuel of different countries, with the Indo-US deal
the western being the most potential contributor.
world, which Taking stock
even the West The usual nuclear fission plants generate
does not know plutonium isotopes as radioactive waste of
to the order of tonnes. None except nature
how to dispose, and mother earth can guarantee a foolproof
was transported disposal or containment of it. A few
milligrammes of it can wipe out a whole
across thousands city in a single day. The half life period is
of miles of empty 500,000 years. That means it remains
oceans, which potential risk for thousands of generations!
What moral right does anybody have to take
was a dangerous that decision of nuclear power generation
and expensive on these obsolete 1 2 3 generation reactor
designs in a country that has 15% of world
process. population?
We should learn from Sweden to create a
safe method of packing the nuclear waste
using clay, granite and calcium compounds,
all of which are abundantly available in
India. Yet no one looks at them as an option
because we are very poor in scientific
research. This technique was learned from
mother nature by an accidental discovery
of natural nuclear reactors that existed in
Africa for billions of years. Following that,
they discovered such natural nuclear reactors
in Canada and other places, surprisingly
under the life-giving river flows.
Business Economics 20 February 01-15, 2011
In India, we don’t have original research
for alternative energy. Atomic and nuclear
research centres have only learned the
methodology and copied the impact studies
from the West or from the same geopolitical
players. Proliferation groups use these very
data to stop the strides towards energy self
sufficiency developmental process. But none
ever studied how 100 times more radiation
in Kerala sea sand thorium deposits than
those leaked either naturally or from faulty
designs of generation 1 2 3 reactors never
affected any life living around it.
Nor was it researched why the 90% pure
uranium deposits in Andhra Pradesh,
Jharkhand and Manipur from where uranium
can be directly used in fuel generation
process or weapons programme were never
‘discovered’ or mined till now by Indian
scientists.
Nor did we research why with all pure
nuclear reserves, for the last four decades
the spent reactor fuel of the western world,
which even the West does not know how to
dispose, was transported across thousands
of miles of empty oceans, which was a
dangerous and expensive process. Neither
was it researched when such mines were
only ‘discovered’ after Nuclear 123
agreement, extraction licences were given,
fore example, in Andhra Pradesh only to
US based UNION CARBIDE.
It is the same company that was responsible
for more than 20,000 deaths in Bhopal gas
tragedy and still refuses to pay dues for the
disaster for the last 25 years.
If such research is not done then India with
its high priorities of development and lack
of capacities to handle this technology, then
we should focus on energy through solar,
geo-thermal and wind sources, which are
cheaper and safer. We have to invest in
research in these areas. While we work on
it, we can take some load off coal and oil
and move on with nuclear energy, but only
on a safe footing.
— The writer is a Senior Research Associate,
Geopolitical Strategic Studies Institute, Hyderabad
and Director, Shiksha-IIAASSLL