New Delhi: The Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu, whose first 1,000 MW unit is currently in the testing stage, is equipped with state-of-the-art safety mechanisms with unique features that make them foolproof, its Russian developer says, addressing current concerns on nuclear safety issues.
Denis Kolchinskiy, chief project engineer of SPbAEP, the developers of the AES 92 nuclear reactor installed at Kudankulam, said modern Russian designs have an optimised balance of active and passive safety systems that have been developed over a decade.
“Now we implement such projects in Russia and offer them our foreign partners,” Kolchinskiy said. According to Kolchinskiy, the Kudankulam plant is built with “active” and “passive” safety systems to provide two layers of protection. While the active layer requires an electrical actuator, or starter, the passive one uses natural force, like that of gravity.
Spurred by Japan’s Fukushima disaster, activists of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy have been holding protests against the Kudankulam plant, citing safety and enviromnent concerns. The Supreme Court had last year rejected a plea against the project but asked the government to put in place stringent security measures.
The key to preventing an apocalypse in the event of a core meltdown, said Kolchinskiy, is the “molten-core catcher” - a mandatory safety system included in the Kudankulam project’s basic supply package.
To remove heat from the reactor core which contains nuclear fuel, it is necessary to supply water by means of pumps. Should the reactor fail to be cooled down for some reason, the fuel inside would not melt down. “The molten core would go to the ‘catcher’, which would ensure its cooling down and prevent release of hydrogen,” Kolchinsky said.
“When the molten matter gets into the ‘catcher’, an endothermic reaction (reaction with thermal energy absorption) begins, which results in solidification of the melt. Besides, the material contains dysprosium, which absorbs neutrons, and this excludes the possibility of a chain reaction,” he said.
Russia’s concerns over the operator’s responsibility in India’s nuclear liability law have stalled agreement on Unit 3 and 4 of the Kudankulam project. “The passive emergency protection system turns on without electricity and begins cooling by heat to heat exchanges owing to thrust. It directs heat to the atmosphere for an unlimited period of time,” the Russian engineer said.
Pointing out that nuclear power is “most harmless”, sans hazardous emissions into the environment, Kolchinskiy said construction at Kudankulam “was preceded by landscaping the surrounding areas, as a result of which all necessary conditions were created for birds, the pond in which they fish and trees where birds build nests.”
IANS
