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Inadequate safety plans for Kudankulam nuclear reactors

India’s Judiciary creates scam over Kudankulam The Canadian,  17 SEPTEMBER 2012“……In the name of nation and national interests they protect the rich and multinationals and want the common people also support that. Recent disclosures from a special official safety review on all Russian reactor designs reveal their several generic flaws, including inadequate emergency cooling, poor evacuation procedures, and non-factoring of earthquake hazards. The Kudankulam reactors lack an independent freshwater source, critical to cooling them in emergencies. They are probably the world’s only nuclear reactors dependent on unreliable seawater desalination, which can fail and has no backup. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) approved the fuel-loading despite all this and without the mandatory emergency evacuation drill in a 16-km radius. AERB approval is NPCIL’s clinching justification for fuel-loading.  The AERB “has no rule-making powers.” It never fulfilled the mandate to prepare an overall nuclear and radiation safety policy.

It has failed to develop as many as 27 of the 168 Standards, Codes and Guides it itself termed essential. It has no role in radiological surveillance and monitoring workers’ health. It doesn’t directly oversee on-site emergency drills. The AERB doesn’t even possess a full inventory of nuclear materials and radiation sources.  It has no framework for decommissioning nuclear plants…….  http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/news/intrnational/2012/09/17/4465.html

September 17, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | India, safety