Will you allow a nuclear plant in your backyard?

All the debate around India's nuclear needs have been whether we should have had a deal with the US or not. The Left cried foul and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's adamance almost brought the government down in the last term.

But two of the main questions haven't been debated as much...

1. Do we really require nuclear energy in the first place?

With our power shortfall, economic growth and burgeoning population, the answer is probably a yes.

2. Is it safe? Is our Government equipped to give us accident-free and efficient nuclear energy?

The answer to that is probably a no.

Look at Japan...

Japan is probably one of the best countries at disaster management. The country is extremely efficient and productive and they have been training for decades for a big mishap like an earthquake or tsunami.

Despite the high level of Japanese competence, the current natural disasters have led to great problems for their nuclear plants, which have ground to a halt and the option of cooling them with seawater had to be explored, a move that will certainly retire the particular plant.

A fire broke out at the Onagawa plant and there was a blast at Fukushima, leading to a radiation leak and the evacuation of lakhs of people.

3 injured, 7 missing in blast at Japan nuke plant

What of India? We have absolute no useful policy or expertise to counter natural disasters, especially when there's a nuclear angle to it.

The scenario in other countries...

Remember Russia's Chernobyl disaster in 1986? It's been close to 25 years and the area is still reeling from the disaster. While the area has been evacuated, health and environmental effects are still being felt in neighbouring countries.

The original shelter to the plant was a makeshift one and was supposed to last for only 10 years. Plans to build a permanent one are still in progress and the Chernobyl Shelter Fund will build a multi-billion dollar shelter, which will be the largest movable structure in the world.

It is expected to be ready in 2013, almost 17 years after when it should have originally come.

Nuclear energy plants in America were mushrooming till the Three Mile Island Plant suffered a partial meltdown in 1979. After that not a single new plant has been commissioned.

Which country has the maximum nuclear percentage usage of power in the world? The answer is France, which gets close to 80% of its power needs from its nuclear power plants.

One of the reasons for this is the fact that France has not had a single major mishap. Sure, it has had a lot of minor snags, but nothing in the range of a Chernobyl.

The inefficient Indian state...

So a big factor is that nuclear efficiency leads to the commissioning of many power plants and mishaps serve as a big deterrent.

What of India? We live in a contradictory country. While the private sector is showing amazing growth and our companies are competing with the best in the world, the government continues to be as corrupt, inefficient and static as ever.

Yes, other countries will set up our power plants. Yes, there will be IAEA safeguards. Yes there will be regular inspections. But this is India and you can never be sure.

India's nuclear plants are safe, assure officials

But we haven't had a mishap yet...

You'll probably argue that India hasn't had a Chernobyl yet. India has 20 power stations in six plants and generates under 5000MWh of power. But we have had our share of minor mishaps.

A comparison of France and India is in order. France produces a whopping 425 TWh of power (1TWh = 1 million MWh). Its biggest mishap in monetary terms was the one that occurred in Manche in 2002, about $100 million in damages.

In contrast, the minor mishaps that have happened in Kalpakkam in 1987, Bulandshahr in 1993 and Kota in 1995 each cost more to rectify than the Manche one!

So the question is: What will happen when we grow?

There is talk of taking our nuclear power production to 64,000MW by 2032.

When the stock market grew, we had scams galore.

When mobile telephony mushroomed we had A Raja's 2G scam.

When the nuclear power industry goes exponential, how can one be sure that all will be hunky dory?

"Nuclear" seems to be a holy cow with foolproof plans and watertight solutions. But in India can anything be watertight?

The NIMBY factor

Another huge factor is NIMBY or "Not in My Backyard". We are OK with any number of projects as long as they don't displace us and are not in our backyard.

After Independence, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had a free hand and there was more than enough space for development and six nuclear power plants could easily be set up.

Japan nuclear meltdown raises concerns in India

But now, where will the dozens more come up?

A Tata plant in Singur led to such a furore, that it had to be moved out.

SEZs across the country and a mega-project like Lavasa in Maharashtra are all are being bogged down by controversies.

When it comes to a nuclear plant, apart from the regular land, party, power group and politician politics, there will also be the nuclear safety angle. Will the Centre, state and local groups all agree to build an N-plant amicably in a given area?

More importantly, would you feel safe if a nuclear plant came up dozens of kilometres from where you are staying?

The author is a Bangalore-based journalist and blogger

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