India’s atomic board to review safety at nuclear plants

March 15th, 2011 - 7:54 pm ICT by IANS  

Mumbai, March 15 (IANS) India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board will carry out a comprehensive reassessment of safety and emergency mitigation measures at all nuclear power plants in the country in view of the events in Japan, an official statement said here Tuesday.

The AERB, which has been constantly monitoring the situation at Japan’s nuclear sites, said that of the 20 reactors in India, two units - Tarapur 1 and 2 in Mumbai - are boiling water reactors (BWRs), similar to the ones in Japan’s Fukushima plant.

However, all the reactors in India are designed to withstand the effects of earthquake and tsunami of specific magnitudes, which are decided based on conservative criteria, the AERB said in the statement.

Earlier, the board, as part of the periodic safety review process, had carried out a detailed safety assessment of all the old plants in India, including Tarapur Atomic Power Station 1 and 2.

Based on these assessments, several upgrades in safety measures, such as provisions of additional generators for providing emergency power supply, were made, it said.

The AERB said that emergency preparedness plans exist for all Indian nuclear power plants — chiefly with respect to plant, site and off-site consequences, and these are periodically rehearsed to ensure that mitigation measures, in case of any unlikely situation, are in place, it said.

While the technical information about the situation in Japan is coming and the situation is evolving, a clearer picture would emerge progressively and the ARRB plans to undertake a detailed review of the entire situation later, the statement added.

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