No slowdown in executing nuclear projects: NPCL

Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) chairman & managing director S K Jain said there would not be any slowdown in the country's nuclear energy programme in view of the Japan incident.

Addressing a media conference here on Saturday, Jain said the country's nuclear power plants were completely safe and they had everything in their command to tackle any kind of adverse situation.

“The reactors, the containment of nuclear fuel have remained intact even in the face of an earthquake of the magnitude of 9 on a Richter scale,” he said while denying any large-scale radiation leakage from the site. According to him, the situation at the Japanese power plant is completely under control now as the cooling of the spent fuel storage area of the fourth unit has started.

An error of judgement of half a meter (height) had probably led to the incident that essentially was caused by failure of diesel generators as water entered them due to tsunami. "It was only the question of removing the decay heat that was left after successfully shutting down the reactor. However, it is not the time to go into the details of why the plant personnel did not immediately start using sea water to cool the fuel containment. Here in our country, the plant engineers are always instructed to use seawater in such scenarios even if that meant shutting down the reactor for several months," he said.

“As for ourselves, safety is always the top most priority and safety review at our nuclear power plants is a continuous process,” he said.