(IGP) Special Current Affairs Material for IAS (Pre) 2013 - PIB "Topic: Nuclear Power is Our Gateway To a Prosperous Future"

Chapter: Gist of Press Information Bureau Articles

Topic: Nuclear Power is Our Gateway To a Prosperous Future

Q. Type-1 and Type-0 fuel?

Every single atom in the universe carries an unimaginably powerful battery within its heart, called the nucleus. This form of energy, often called Type-1 fuel, is hundreds of thousands of times more powerful than the conventional Type-0 fuels, which are basically dead plants and animals existing in the form of coal, petroleum, natural gas and other forms of fossil fuel.

Q. How safety of Kudankulum nuclear power plant has been addressed?

There are four important aspects of safety in a nuclear power plant which have been addressed in the plant.

1. Structural Integrity Safety: To counter any risk from Tsunami and cyclones, the plant is elevated, to a minimum height of 6 meter (pump house) and the auxiliary diesel sets are at a height of 9.3 meter with a redundancy of four times in the diesel generators. In the case of Fukushima, one of the primary reasons for structural collapse was the explosion in the hydrogen which got out of control. To counter this, Kudankulum plant has installed 154 Hydrogen recombiners across the plant which can absorb any leaked hydrogen and prevent any structural damage.

2. Thermal Hydraulic Safety: The most advanced safety feature in the Kudankulum plant is the installation of the Passive Heat Removal System (PHRS) which is latest in technology to ensure rapid cooling of the reactor in the event of a reactor problem. The PHRS is a unique steam recirculating system which can continue to cool the plant in the event of the failure of AC power and even when the worst possible scenario of coolant malfunction has occurred, without leaking any radiation in the atmosphere. There is also mechanism to rapidly cool the reactor in emergency situation using an elaborate system of showers which are installed in redundancy across the plant.

3. Neutronic Safety: In any nuclear plant the most important cause of failure can be the loss of ability to control the neutrons being generated which is done by a system called control rods. Besides the control rods, the Kudankulum Plant has uniquely implemented the latest technology in this domain – The Core Catcher. This is basically an underlying structure with Gadolium oxide which would “catch the neutrons” in the event of a highly unlikely meltdown. The core catcher is the ultimate defense which would, without any human intervention, or need of external power supply, cool down the fuel and reactor.

4. Waste Management: A popular myth is that nuclear waste is dumped into the oceans which kills marine life and contaminates water. This is completely false. Yes, many decades ago, some of the nations used to dump nuclear waste in deep oceans away from habitat but that practice is over now. With the closed loop cycle the waste generated per year from 1000 MW plant is less than 3% and that, after vitrification would not occupy a space of about 6 cubic meters.

Q. What is the picture of CO2 emission from electricity generation?

1. Every year, human activities are adding about 30 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. The IPCC estimates that 26 per cent of this emission (about 7.6 billion tonnes) is a direct consequence of electricity generation requirements.

2. The WHO estimates that about 1.3 million people lose their lives as a result of urban outdoor air pollution alone, and about 140,000 are causalities to adaptation challenges of climate change. Thus, the pollution caused by power generation activities, and the associated climate change are directly or indirectly responsible for about 481,000 deaths every year.

3. Comparatively, in the case of the worst civilian nuclear disaster ever at Chernobyl, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic radiation (UNSCEAR) predicted up to 4,000 cancer cases (often curable) due to the accident, besides 57 direct causalities.

Q. Why Thorium is considered future fuel in India?

• Thorium is far more abundant, by about four times, than the traditional nuclear fuel, Uranium, and occurs in a far purer form, too. It is believed that the amount of energy contained in the Thorium reserves on earth is more than the combined total energy that is left in petroleum, coal, other fossil fuels and Uranium, all put together.

• International Atomic Energy Agency Report (2005) on Thorium fuels indicates that India might have the largest reserves of Thorium in the world, with over 650,000 tonnes. This is more than one- fourth of the total deposits of Thorium; in comparison, we have barely 1 per cent of the world’s Uranium deposits.

• Thorium has many other advantages. It is estimated that Thorium may be able to generate (through Uranium-233 that could be produced from it) eight times the amount of energy per unit mass compared to (natural) Uranium. In the much debated issue of waste generation also, Thorium has a relative advantage. It produces waste that is relatively less toxic.

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