Indian government's plan of building a nuclear plant in Jaitapur is facing stronger oppositions than ever. The nuclear plant is supposed to help solving India's power shortage problem: it is supposed to generate twice as much the power produced in Fukushima. As the second-fastest growing major economy, India has a very high power demand, which is increasing at a high rate.
The plan has been opposed by local people live near the site, and not just for the possibility of a crisis like in Japan. Local fishermen argue that hot water discharge pose a risk to fish stocks, while a security cordon would block access to the sea. The prawns, mackerels and king fish from the sea off Jaitapur are exported to markets from Europe to Thailand and Japan. Now, protesters say Jaitapur could suffer the same fate as Fukushima, where Tokyo Electric Power Co. is struggling to contain radiation leaks after a partial meltdown.
“Earlier, government officials used to say: ‘Look at Japan. It has so many nuclear plants in earthquake-prone areas and there have been no accidents,’” said Praveen Gavankar, a 57-year-old Alphonso mango grower who is also one of the leaders of the movement. “Now we are saying: See, we told you it was dangerous.”
Nuclear Power Corp. (NPCIL), argues that the site sits on average 24.5 meters above mean sea level, reducing the tsunami risk. The company also claims water discharged into the sea will be at most about 5 degrees Celsius warmer and confined to an area of 0.28 square kilometers. There have been no adverse effects on marine life at existing coastal nuclear power sites, according to NPCIL. Nevertheless, the company will “revisit” its plans after it gets more information from Japan, according to Chairman Shreyans Kumar Jain.
The delay of a new power plant will affect India's economy negatively. But with the current nuclear crisis in Japan, it is hard to predict the fate of this plan.
2 comments:
This can be avoided if the India Nuclear Plant was to be established by proving that it can be safe after a massive earthquake shock and have emergency coolant systems (One of the Japanese nuclear reactors did not have an emergency coolant system which led to partial nuclear meltdown). At the same time, perhaps it could do something about the hot water discharge such as having its own manmade pool of water. I believe this would be reached for a compromise if the company assures that it would be safe and reliable. I think people are too paranoid because of the news in Japan. This can be prevented if the Indian government can apply some strict regulations on all Indian nuclear plants.
I believe that the nuclear plant incidence is one of the very few cases in the world that can actually prove harm to people. Although India does not have that same technology as Japan in controlling and managing nuclear power plants, they are sure well aware of what risks they may face when establishing one. People are just too paranoid because of what happened in Japan.
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