Thaindian News

Chennai, Sep 21 (IANS) The nuclear disaster in Japan’s Fukushima following a tsunami cannot be cited as an argument against the two reactors that are being built in Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district, a leading Indian nuclear scientist said Wednesday.

“There are 20 nuclear power stations in India with excellent safety record. The accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant is related to a tsunami and not nuclear related,” S.C. Chetal, director at Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), told reporters after inaugurating a seminar at SRM University, around 40 km from Chennai.

The nuclear reactors in India are designed to withstand natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis, Chetal said and pointed out that during the 2004 tsunami that hit Tamil Nadu and Andhra coasts the reactors at Kalpakkam were unaffected.

“In 2004 the waves rose up to 4.7 metres at Kalpakkam but nothing happened. In Fukushima, the waves rose up to 10 metres and the reactor was situated in a tsunami area,” Chetal said.

He said the nature is different from region to region and the same yardstick cannot be applied.

“It is like asking why there is no snowfall in Chennai,” he quipped.

Chetal stressed that lessons have been learnt from the Japanese accident and safety measures have been incorporated in Indian reactors.

Asked about the IGCAR designed 500 MW fast breeder reactor - that breeds more fuel than it consumes - coming up at Kalpakkam, Chetal said: “The plant will be commissioned by next September (2012).”

He said two more such reactors are planned at Kalpakkam and the work on setting up the fast reactor fuel cycle facility, to reprocess the spent fuel, will begin this year.