India's N-plan worries Lanka, seeks help for radiation safety

A shock in Fukushima, Japan, was causing fear waves across the world and now even in Sri Lanka, which has no nuclear reactors at all.

Concerned over the nuclear programmes in South India, Sri Lanka has sought India’s assistance in developing a radiation monitoring and safety centre in the north-western part of that country.

“We don’t have any nuclear reactors in Sri Lanka and have no particular plans till now. But the concern for Sri Lanka is India’s nuclear reactors in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. So, we have written a letter to the Ministry of External Affairs for Indian assistance in setting up a radiation monitoring and safety centre in the north-western part of the country,” said Wimaladharma Abeyewickreme, chairman, Atomic Energy Authority of Sri Lanka.

The matter was expected to be discussed in the next bilateral meeting between both the countries, he said, adding that whether it was technological or monetary assistance, or both, would be decided only after the two governments discussed it and came to an understanding.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan was badly hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, creating panic across the world. Despite efforts to cool and stabilise its reactors, Fukushima turned out to be one of the biggest nuclear disasters after the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant, Ukraine, in 1986.

According to Abeyewickreme, the chance of a radiation affecting Sri Lanka is higher than places in India, because the former comes within 30-40 kilometres of India’s plant in Tamil Nadu.

“We have, in fact, raised our concerns to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) of India,” he added.

However, AEC denies to have received any such information. “We have not yet received any letter. Till now, there is no plan to give such assistance,” said AEC Chairman Srikumar Banerjee, who is also secretary to the central government’s Department of Atomic Energy.

“In the southern coast, we currently have two reactors at Kalpakkam and two others are under construction at Kudankulam. We also plan to have two more at Kudankulam. However, this is just a concern by that country,” Banerjee added.

Soon after the Fukushima disaster, India had clarified that its 20 commissioned nuclear reactors were safe and built with adequate earthquake emergency backup.

In fact, out of 20, only two at Tarapur are the boiling water reactor type, similar to those in Fukushima. The remaining are pressurised heavy water reactors, which can withstand high seismic pressure.

Sri Lanka also plans to set up a nuclear power plant soon. “A technical committee was appointed in September last year to conduct the pre-feasibility study on this. For such endeavours, we will need technical help from India, too,” Abeyewickreme said.