Our nuclear plants safe: Anil Kakodkar

Former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission and secretary, department of atomic energy, Anil Kakodkar belied fears that our nuclear power stations were unsafe.

Addressing media persons after conclusion of the fifth convocation ceremony of the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT) at Girinagar, Pune on Friday, Kakodkar said,

“After the Bhuj earthquake in 2002, our Kakrapar power station which was near Surat did not shut down, It continued to work.’’
Kakodkar also cited the example of the nuclear power station at Kalpakkam, which he said was able to brave the flood waters of the tsunami of 2004.

“Despite the pumps of the Kalpakkam power station getting flooded, the reactor continued to function,’’ Kakodkar said.

When asked by media persons that Jaitapur area had experienced 92 tremors in the last 20 years, Kakodkar said, “Typically, the entire history of earthquakes in this area will be studied and a particular situation will be maximised. However, Jaitapur lies in a seismic zone of three only,’’ Kakodkar said.
Kakodkar cautioned people in India not to adopt a knee-jerk reaction to the Japanese nuclear power station accident.

He said, “We should not react in panic to the Japanese nuclear power station accident. The Fukushima accident will be researched threadbare and like at Chernobyl, we will derive lessons from it.’’

According to Kakodkar, the world association for nuclear operators studied all disasters and documented the lessons to be learnt from the same.

When asked if Japan was struggling to fight the radiation threat at Fukushima, Kakodkar said, “They clearly have a cooling problem on their hands. They are trying many different ways to fight the problem. They should be able to curb the problem very soon.’’

Making a case for nuclear power, Kakodkar said, “Given the fact that India's electricity needs are 10 times more than the present capacity, nuclear power is a very important energy resource which cannot be ignored.”