GETTING A 'NUKE' EDUCATION

While 'channel suffering' (some of my friends also call it channel surfing) a few days back, I was arrested by the face of Anil Kakodkar, the former chief of the Atomic Energy Commission and perhaps the last word in things nuclear in India. Sadly (for me), the interview was in its last few frames and I was chagrined that I couldn't follow what the learned man was saying about things that had caught the public's imagination in a scary manner in the post-Fukushima weeks. However, one phrase caught my ear, and that was "educating the public" about nuclear energy and its advantages, and perhaps about its other long-term plus points.

That was the note on which the presenter too wound up the discussion, and with these words ringing in my ear, I came to a decision--get some nuke education, ASAP. So I set out trawling the Net and talking to 'educated' people, mostly my friends who are scientists with the space organization, some knowledgeable medical doctors and army officers, and any and every body who could/would give me some additional nuggets of information and knowledge about the somewhat mystical science of the nucleus in its split avatar.

One thing that struck me (perhaps because of a thick skull and little within that) was that it is an esoteric science that is not very clear about matter/s when you get down to the nitty-gritty and also it has more questions than answers to critical issues--most of which get grouped under the broad rubric of things that science will 'soon' have answers for. Nu-clear is 'clear' enough, but it is not the old-world clarity that we all know and cherish, but something totally 'nu' that only the cognoscenti (pretend to!) understand fully.

When you travel back in time, you could see that it all started in Germany back in the late 1930s with the discovery of nuclear fission by Otto Hahn and others. Germany was into serious nuclear research from then on, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_nuclear_energy_project) with scientists seeking to understand matter and energy and such mysteries. At the end of WW-II, the rocket and atomic scientists and equipment were quietly transplanted to the US (the Russians too got their share), with gifted scientists like Oppenheimer (the 'father' of the A-bomb: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Robert_Oppenheimer ) and others leading the research. But for a government that was seeking the ultimate weapon of mass destruction to dominate the world with an unprecedented fear factor, the development of the A-bomb was top priority (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project). While developing a weapon to kill, one doesn't stand on fine considerations and try to understand the subtler nuances. You then are not far from the shady terrorist fabricating a home-made IED (Improvised Explosive Device) for nefarious purposes--you want to carry it about with some amount of safety, but once it is out of your hand, you dont bother how it kills -- so long as it kills effectively. We all know what this kind of 'research' led to. The first A-bomb was tested on July 16, 1945, in New Mexico.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_nuclear_weapons ) Hardly a month later, in August, the US 'tested' the little-understood technology at the earliest opportunity in Japan--twice.

This sort of a 'shady' past is inseparably tied to nuclear science. ( 'Old Configuration, New Context' -- K S Jacob, The Hindu: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article1685224.ece?homepage=true )The primarily military nature of nuclear R & D had created this aura of mystery. Transparency was something that was missing all along and safety was an afterthought in the military sector, despite what the 'insiders' will tell you. In the post cold-war era, the substantial investments made in the nuclear field were set to be recouped by companies mainly in the West by re-engineering the systems for power production. That nuclear power was touted as a 'clean' and 'advanced' option was in itself one of the best PR coups of the modern era orchestrated by the nuclear corporates. How quickly the world had forgotten Hiroshima and Nagasaki ! It was now fashionable to 'go nuclear'. Obviously, as is often the case with "developmental decisions" worldwide, the questions here were not technological, but 'economical', which in simple terms meant "commissions".

But the complacency of the world was shaken by the Three Mile Island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident) and Chernobyl (http://www.greenfacts.org/en/chernobyl/index.htm ) nuclear accidents. But the "fallout" was short-lived. The nuclear industry PR wizards were able to 'contain' the information damage much before the nuclear spill itself could be contained fully! Ultimately they succeeded in fully dismissing safety and other concerns from the minds of the public, and promoting nuke power again, brushing aside risks and anxieties. And the governments (translation: greedy politicians) once again embarked on a spree of 'going nuke'. And the latest and perhaps the greatest victim of that PR barrage was Japan itself. As a people, it had experienced the horrors of the nuclear holocaust and have suffered for generations. But watch how their pacifist and anti-nuclear stand was watered down and how they were 'sold' so many nuclear power plants as a 'safe' option to power their burgeoning power needs. Japan has once again been cursed by the nuclear genie unleashed from the proverbial bottle. Post-Fukushima, many questions remain unanswered.

Where are the experts now who said that it was all safer than the safest? Where are all those nuke wizards who knew how to get the nuclear 'genie' back into the bottle when it sort of misbehaved? What are their definite answers to the worried questions of the public at the receiving end? What is the difference between an A-bomb and the radiation from a nuke plant that has gone haywire? Well, they will tell you one is military and it is part of an act of war; this is pure civilian...and as a result probably a lot 'softer' in its fallout... God!

It is in the post-Fukushima context that one has to take the words of pundits that the general public needs to be "educated" about the nuclear options. ( http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/article1557377.ece )

 If one is to go by the volume of 'education' that the nuclear lobby has till date foisted upon the world's vulnerable public, and its quality vis-a-vis the truth about the nuclear option, one would term it not exactly education. Fortunately the English language has many words to convey different shades of meaning. In totalitarian states and such other places, they speak of "re-education" to make the citizen tread 'happily' the line of new thoughts and ideologies. Nuclear 'education' too is somewhat in that class. Indoctrination, in my humble opinion, would be a more honest and a more truthful word to denote that.

But I do not want to be a member of the 'thought police' and so I do not think it is my duty to 'educate' you regarding the ideal nature of nuke power. Rather, permit me share with you what all I learned in the meantime.

The Indian government's brinkmanship at the time of the nuke deal with the US and how it survived and went ahead with the deal by forging new local deals by 'spending good money' has been leaked well and truly by Wikileaks. Another hurried nuke deal was struck with France in order to prop up the troubled French AREVA and this led to the brouhaha over the Jaitapur power project. In a country like India where "cut and paste" artists supply any number of environmental impact assessments (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1607058.ece) and other 'studies', including seismic and other critical data, it is not difficult for the 'powers that be' to paint a rosy picture of all being safe and environment friendly and pro-people and pro-development on the strength of such 'cooked-up' studies and reports. This has happened in the case of Jaitapur too despite massive public protests led by people like retired Supreme Court Judge P B Sawant and others. (http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/interview_we-dont-want-to-negotiate-on-jaitapur-plant_1517634)

Jaitapur is a quiet place with a great diversity of wildlife and with Nature probably at her best. The Madhban plateau on which the giant nuclear plants will be built is the largest coastal plateau in the Konkan with a unique biodiversity. But it will no more be like that if we let the energy Czars have their way. 40,000 people will be displaced from their homes and lands, their livlihoods destroyed, countless tigers, elephants and hundreds of other species 'erased' and the landscape levelled into an arid moonscape. All in the rush to build the mega EPR (the European Pressurized-water Reactor, also called Evolutionary Power Reactor)... which has NOT YET been built or tested fully ANYWHERE in the world ??!!!??? A ticking time-bomb waiting for a seismic incident or a tsunami to unleash its destruction far and wide. Do we need to be the guinea pigs in this mega experiment, this mega-disaster-in-the-making???

Each of the giant Jaitapur reactors will have a capacity of 1,650 Megawatts of electrical power, and the six reactors together will output just short of 10,000 MW of electricity. Great! But there is another side to it too. Atomic reactors are "hot" devices; REALLY hot ones. The thermal output of each reactor is about 5,000 Megawatts, and that means a total of 30,000 Megawatts of heat will be generated. Since their conversion efficiency is at best between 25 and 30 per cent, approximately two-thirds of their energy will be dumped into the sea and a smaller per centage into the air as waste heat. Did you say global warming? This will be some sort of a massive local 'warming' that will play havoc with fisheries (the livelihood of most of Jaitapur's poor locals; but then you have GOT to make some sacrifices for development!) and affect the weather and our lives in unprecedented and unforeseen ways.

Experts have warned that the higher 'burnup' in the EPR, a design ploy to increase the 'productivity' of the reactor, may result in a thinning of the fuel cladding, making it prone to early failure. A study by the French power utility EDF has reported that the toxicity from the radioactive waste of the EPR is four times that of ordinary reactors, and is especially high in radioactive Iodine and Bromine, which stay at dangerous levels of radioactivity for over...no, not a hundred years, but more like a million years.

Today in almost every 'civilized' country (including India!) they have rules and regulations against dumping waste. Before you junk your car or even your PC, you have to conform to many rules that specify how to get rid of all that dangerous waste material without damaging the environment. But all those pollutants are "chicken feed" when you compare them to nuclear waste. Nature can in certain ways tackle even worst pollutants. Areas devastated by giant oil spills have shown a re-emergence of life forms and 'normalcy' after just a few years. Man-made chemicals are perhaps the exception here (including plastics) when Nature concedes total defeat. But what about the accumulating cache of nuclear waste that goes on piling up over the years as the plants operate? Even without any tsunami or quakes to complicate issues, the accumulated nuclear waste challenges safe storage and safe disposal/re-use/recycling. The nuke lobby says they will be safely stored until science finds a solution/use "tomorrow". A team of Japanese anti-nuke pacifists on a global mission has compared the nuke plants to houses without toilets for waste disposal. What will be the quality of life in such a place? But lack of toilets will only drive you nuts or give you dysentery, not maim you for life right from the womb, and till Kingdom come.

In the case of Jaitapur too it is not clear where the nuclear waste emanating from all the reactors will be dumped. The plant is estimated to generate 300 tonnes of waste each year. And the French EPR reactor waste will have about four times as much radioactive Bromine, Iodine, Caesium, etc, compared to that from an ordinary pressurized water reactor like India's Trombay unit. In fact details slowly emerging out of Fukushima (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sci-tech-and-agri/article1566421.ece) speak of a ten year gap of safety regimes being tested or verified. Also, reports speak now of the dangers posed by the massive storage of nuclear waste --stored "casually" near the reactor in small pools. One expert has called that a greater threat than if the reactor itself were to melt. The details of neglect that have slowly 'leaked out' are worse than the radiation leaks, and they are appalling in the extreme. And, mind you, all that has happened in Japan; a technology-minded and disciplined society like Japan, and one with a 'healthy respect' for things nuclear. But bureaucratic short-cuts and industrial apathy oriented to mere profitability played havoc at Fukushima, and an emergency of frightening proportions is unreeling fast before our very eyes--one that the world has been reassured again and again will never happen.

In the context of Jaitapur, right from the beginning there were voices of concern that were brushed aside by the "powers that be", the foremost of which is the PMO, and then the nuke lobby and its middle men. The Tata Insitute of Social Sciences came down heavily on the project for its negative social and environmental impact. ( http://www.indianexpress.com/news/jaitapur-nproject-sitting-on-high-severity-quake-zonetiss/730737/ )  But the study has been rubbished by the NPCIL, the Nuclear Power Coporation, which will build and operate the plants. (http://www.hindu.com/2011/01/10/stories/2011011058922000.htm)

It is interesting in this context to listen to the eye-opening revelations of Dr Gopalakrishnan, former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board:

“... The AERB's disaster preparedness oversight is mostly on paper and the drills they once in a while conduct are half-hearted efforts which amount more to a sham.....


In the case of earthquake engineering, the Nuclear Power Corporation strategy is to have their favourite consultants cook up the kind of seismicity data which suit them.....


There is practically no independent verification of their data or design methodologies. A captive AERB which reports to the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) makes the overall nuclear safety management in India worthless.....”  

That, coming from a person like him who was definitely in the know of things, should shock us into some sort of action against the casual, "at-any-cost" approach of the nuke lobby. The 'cut-and-paste experts' are active to serve the interests of the 'government' and the nuke lobby, whether it is environmental impact or seismic safety or nuclear dangers.

---> http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/comment_why-should-jaitapur-be-made-a-guinea-pig-for-untested-reactor_1520843
---> http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1555422.ece

Now what about even a truthful and factual study? Have we achieved that scientific certainty when we could with some amount of surety predict the ways of nature? The present conditions, including seismic and weather, are no guarantees for future safety. It is interesting to listen to a voice of sanity as Gopalkrishna Gandhi examines the need for 'long-term learning' from the Fukushima fallout. (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/article1586399.ece ). Surely the public will learn from history and will be guided by their more knowledgeable peers. But our 'leaders' want to 'sell' us progress at any cost, and pocket their 'share' with no qualms.

Have the proponents of nuke power seriously looked at alternatives? India is so placed that she is rich in many sources of power. Hydel (not environment-threatening mega dams, but mini- and micro-hydel power plants for local needs), wind, solar and now hydrogen-based power. All these are safer at any time than nukes, and with some focussed research, could be harnessed to supply enough power for our immediate and future needs. What is needed is the will, the political will to do that. Instead, in our country the political will is to pursue easy money from 'imports', whether we need it or not, whether it is a white elephant or a mammoth of some other hue. The Indian setup is full of such intentional 'starvation deaths' of successful indigenous enterprises in order to benefit somebody somewhere far away...of course, with the right kind of 'commissions'. The latest such casualties were the Indian vaccine manufactories, prestigious institutions working to full satisfaction and with an enviable track record, that were closed down on the whim of our "minister for health"! (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article1510997.ece ) So let us strongly root for an exploration of alternative energy strategies with redoubled vigour--NOW.

When it comes to nuke power, the French are in the forefront, with most of their energy needs supplied by nuke plants. They have no choice as their other energy resources are virtually nil. But when you look at the nuke 'market', the US has a strong presence, with the French being only a second-level player. (Remember, practically all the Japanese nuke plants were supplied by US firms, including the ill-fated ones at Fukushima.) Both the French and the Americans fall over each other to reassure the purchasers about the safety and superiority of their systems. But look at what happens when the French try to sell their 'third generation' advanced nuke power plants to the US. There is a huge hue and cry (http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_59795.shtml ) about endangering the lives of Americans with sub-standard and untested technology! This is probably the best example of doublespeak that one may come across--the Americans are pushing their own 'Fukushima-standard' technology around the world, but when it comes to building one on their soil, they are scared stiff ! If only there was the sale of a US reactor to France would we learn of its inherent dangers from a suitably strident French outcry!

However, disinterested readers could easily glean critical information after a careful reading of the above article and afterwards they will be in a "better educated" position so far as the unproven technology of EPR is concerned, and how dangerous advocacy for them can be. I must urge you to spend quality time reading the above article by Ms Cathy Garger at Axis of Logic.

However, what stood out like a sore thumb was the fact that the concern of the US goverment for 'people' (and, for that matter, democracy and other high-flown ideals) is confined to within their nation's borders, and when it comes to protecting the commercial interests of American companies even at the risk of millions of lives of innocents, they play another tune. If someone could dig up the 'deals' made by GE with Japan for the sale of Fukushima and other reactors, it would make for some sordid reading. This is obvious when you look at the lengths to which they went to twist the arm of the Indian government - I am sure you had your favourite reads of the Wikileaks "India cable-gate" series.  Activist Gopal Krishna has made a good case against the Jaitapur project, and I guess your nuke eduction wont be complete without a look at it. (http://www.rediff.com/news/column/why-the-jaitapur-nuclear-plant-must-be-opposed/20101229.htm )

Advocates for nuke power say that it is the most viable and cost-effective approach for clean power. How true is that? The cost per mega watt of installed capacity for the EPR is over Rs 20 crore, compared to Rs 4 crore to Rs 5 crore for a coal-based plant and Rs 7-9 crore for Indian-designed boiling water reactors, according to Delhi Science Forum chief Prabir Purakayastha. But one look at the trouble-plagued and delayed first French EPR at Olkiluoto in Finland, begun in 2005 and still not completed nor commissioned, tells you that cost over-runs and escalations will ultimately make the energy economically unviable. You can imagine how the whole thing will materialize in a country like India.

A glow of hope in this dark scenario is that the German financier has backed out of the Jaitapur project on account of "reputational risk"--that means, they dont want to be seen supporting such 'anti-people' projects. (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/145949/german-bank-pulls-jaitapur-nuclear.html ) Germany till recently was an advocate of nuke power. But the policy has cost the present government dearly in the wake of increasing public protest against extending the service life of existing nuke plants in Germany. Now the German policy is to take everything nucler with a large pinch of salt. Greenpeace, the pro-environment protest group too has interesting details about the project. (http://weblog.greenpeace.org/nuclear-reaction/2010/03/nuclear_news_edf_nuclear_react.html )

Whatever be the negatives you or anybody can dish up, the govenment remains "committed" to providing its people with the latest and the greatest. (http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_congress-signals-commitment-for-jaitapur-nuclear-power-project_1519966 ) How could one fault such altruism?! Forget the commissions they have pocketed, and look at the growth rate the country will achieve with all that cheap and abundant power!! Our ministers, from the top down, are singing the praises of nuke power and are set to worship at these modern temples of power, come what may. Politicians are naturally power crazy, and Megawatts of nuclear 'power' are likely to supercharge them with a strange 'high' and make them forget all else. But when ultimately the reactor core starts going 'hyper-critical' and radiation comes leaking invisibly in search of living, breathing flesh to sear it into the agony of a painful death for no fault of yours, don't look around for all those 'yeah-sayers' to save you. Even if they are around, they are sure to survive somehow as their thick skin is likely to be impervious even to the nuclear radiation; at worst, you could expect a mutation of the political species into something much more abominable.

So take your nuclear education seriously and make up your mind whether you need it. REALLY need it in your soil, in your backyard. If the Americans or the French are so keen to build nuke power stations, let them build it in THEIR backyards and sell us the power. (It will be easier to invent a way to transmit power over great distances using some new-fangled tech than inventing a safe use for nuke waste!)Do you want to be a guinea pig in the biggest nuke experiment of all time?

It is your life, and the lives of your loved ones...and also the lives of your dear, beloved countrymen. Don't play dangerous nuclear roulette with your lives and with Nature and make this beautiful earth a radiation graveyard. And dont be too sure Anna Hazare will undertake another fast to save you and the country!

IT IS ONE FOR ALL, AND ALL FOR ONE --all, except the above thick-skinned ones!


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