Amidt the protests against the Kudankulam and Jaitapur nuclear power projects, the nuclear industry experts on Wednesday admitted that there was a need for further stepping up efforts to achieve public acceptability towards the effective implementation of nuclear capacity addition programme in the country. At the same time, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Rk Sinha and Nuclear Power Corporation chairman and managing director KC Purohit said there was no place for complacency as far as safety of nuclear plants are concerned and it can be further strengthened by more research.
SS Bajaj, chairman, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board was quite specific in his observation that the comprehensive reviews carried out after the Fukushima Daiichi accident took place in march 2011 have brought out the existing strengths in country's nuclear system. These measures would indeed raise the safety to even higher standards. These experts were speaking to the Business Standard at the sidelines of a conference on "safety in design, construction and operation of nuclear power plants" organised by Indian Nuclear Society.
Purohit said the Fukushima accident has influenced public perception globally as apprehensions about nuclear safety were also raised thereafter. "There is a need for different platforms of communications to be developed for different people as the public acceptability is one of the key for acceptability. We will have to communicate the safety performance parameters in a language which is understandable for the public at large and for neighbourhood population in particular," he mentioned.
Sinha said the Fukushima accident has further emphasised the need for maintaining a high level of safety in all nuclear activities especially in the face of beyond design basis events of natural origin. Necessary actions for safety improvement are being implemented based on the outcome of a significant amount of work done by the Indian nuclear community by way of identifying the improvements needed to further enhance the safety. According to him, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and Tata Memorial Hospital have been asked to carry out a fundamental research on impact of release of radio activity on the people.
Anil Kakodkar, former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission emphasised a need for a comprehensive approach to safety. "Plant should be able to cope without significant radio active releases and without irreparable damage. Besides, plant should be able to cope without requiring significant off site emergency response. There was a need to reassess the design basis assumptions for both new and existing plants at two levels," he noted.
According to Kakodkar, Fukushima accident was triggered by an extreme external natural event. "We must ensure that an essential goal for nuclear safety is "never again" should there aby any significant offsite emergency," he added.
