‘Indian nuclear facilities safe’
June 30th, 2011 - 12:54 am ICT by IANSKolkata, June 29 (IANS) The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) has initiated a safety review of India’s nuclear power stations in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster in Japan and all the facilities are safe, the agency’s chief said here Wednesday.
Delivering a lecture at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), AEC chairman Srikumar Banerjee said that in terms of safety, Indian nuclear facilities could not be compared to Fukushima.
A 9-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami left up to 28,000 people dead or missing in northeastern Japan March 11. It also triggered a crisis at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which suffered a series of equipment failures and leakage of radiactive water.
The AEC chief said the crisis was caused by the inadequacy in removing decayed heat that led to stoppage of power supply, which in turn caused a station black out. As a result, the chain reaction in the plant stopped.
In the Indian reactors, Banerjee said, the review carried out has shown that adequate provisions were in place to handle situations like a station blackout.
As additional measures, nuclear power reactors are shielded by tsunami protection walls.
He pointed out that the Fukushima facility is located in seismic zone 5, but in India, apart from Narora in Uttar Pradesh, all plants are in seismic zones 2 and 3.
The AEC is also constructing reactors which can withstand flash floods and cyclones in the coastal zone.
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Tags: adequate provisions, atomic energy commission, banerjee, black out, coastal zone, equipment failures, flash floods, inadequacy, indian statistical institute, japan march, magnitude earthquake, northeastern japan, nuclear facilities, nuclear plant, nuclear power reactors, nuclear power stations, seismic zone, seismic zones, srikumar, stoppage