NUCLEUS OF DISASTERTARUN KANTI BOSE

TARAPUR ATOMIC POWER STATION he country might boast about being among the Nuclear power but we know little about the problems besetting the operations of nuclear power plants. Not much attention is given to the continuous failure in operations

and ‘nucleocrats’ toe the official line of concealing the findings of the reports about structural defects and malfunctioning of the country’s atomic power plants. They want the country to continue with the most hazardous technological system.

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Whenever there are accidents or leakages in nuclear plants, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) officials try to hush it up as a minor technical defect. But in its aftermath, the findings done by anti-nuclear activists indicate that it had a forewarning of a major disaster in the offing. For years it had been known that the Tarapur and Rajasthan atomic power plants are not fully safe. In May 1994, following the collapse of 300-tonne concrete dome in Kaiga Atomic Power Project, a complete shutdown of N-power plants in the country for the thorough check up was ordered by Dr. A.Gopalkrishnan, the then Chairman of AERB. He pressed the bosses of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to attend to safety problems. The Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) in Rawatbhata has a dismal track record. In 25 years it had been shut down more than 250 times due to some fault or the other. Coupled with this are reports that daily wage workers at the plant fall sick occasionally .At Trombay and Tarapur there are tonnes of radioactive fluids stored in dilapidated tanks and in many cases the welding of the old pipes and containers are in need of urgent replacement. The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai has more than 25 serious cases of safety problems.Many a times radioactive spills from the waste immobilisation plant (WIP) at Tarapur leaks into the drain water, which are being shielded by the Tarapur Atomic Power Station (TAPS) officials with “there was neither radioactive release nor any harmful discharges”. Villagers living near Tarapur nuclear facility are panicked by the fact that many a times they have been drinking water contaminated by the radioactive leak. While the villagers are not aware of the precise ramifications of consuming contaminated water, even if they did not know it, they had a very little choice in the matter and had continued using it. Tarapur is 11 kilometres from Boisar station in Palghar taluka of Thane district, Maharashtra. Several villages are within five km radius- Akkerpatti (1 km), Ghivali (1.8 kms.), Phopharan (1 km.), Unabat (2.5 kms.), Uchali (3 kms.) and Dandi (4 kms.) General Electric Corporation, USA, constructed the nuclear plant at Tarapur on a turnkey project in four years. It received a special aid dispensation of United States Agency for International Development, a part of American strategy for seeding the worldwide market for nuclear vendors.

In Tarapur, Akkerpatti and Phopharan, twin villages being the nearest I walk towards them. They share the same sarpanch Thaksen Patil, a resident of Phopharan who worked for TAPS for seven years as a storekeeper. The two villages have no roads, no primary health centre and no tap water. The wells were dug 100 years back. Most of the villagers have houses with thatched roofs. A solitary bus comes at 7.45 a.m. and leaves 10 minutes later. For the rest of day the villagers have to walk 2 kms. to Unabat. The oldest school is Phopharan primary school, which is 112 years old, and all the villagers did their schooling from here.

TARAPUR ATOMIC POWER STATIONWhen I enquired about the radioactive water leakage seeping into the ponds and wells from where they drew drinking water, most of the villagers were tight-lipped. After much persuasion Namdeo Achrekar, 30, revealed, “Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) officials try to sweep all the evidences under the carpet. It pressurises the villagers not to disclose anything to a stranger on the plea that the entire project falls under Officials Secrets Act, 1923.” Another youth, Gopal Dongerwar quoting from Marathi magazine published by anti-nuclear group read out to me, “The radioactive spill from the ramshackle tanks seeping into the ponds and wells are too slow to show any immediate effect on the villagers residing uneasily near TAPS. But, in future, radiation could result in severe effect. It might damage chromosomes that in women can lead to abnormal childbirth or born-disabled children. However, the genetic damage

does not appear in the first generations but could surface in the future unborn generations. The most frightening aspect of radiation is that its effect though invisible, is irreversible.” Tarapur has a history of protests-both mild and violent- against such incidents. As early as 1974, a National Workshop on Siting and Safety of Nuclear Plants spoke of major accidents at Tarapur which had two engineers dying instantaneously, while the Chief Engineer died a slow and agonising death over the next three years. Then in 1979, massive leak of radioactive water exposed 300 workers to much more than the permissible levels of radiation, which was one millirem per hour per person. Quite unaware of accidents in TAPS and exposure to radiation-to-radiation hazards, the village elders of Akkerpatti, Ghivali and Phopharan have no fear. They have been repeatedly given a one-sided picture of TAPS. When there are leakages and accidents, TAPS officials sound like nuclear mandarins, they give out details of safety devices, how it has a large number of shells, how the inner core contains concrete and shell as the 350-feet chimney can do no damage to the villagers as the breeze will take away the radiation.Every alternate year, men, women and children are picked up at random and taken to BARC clinic to check whether they have received radiation. “After the check up the villagers are given biscuits. They are told everything is fine. BARC takes the samples of vegetables, fish, soil and water but we are never told the results,” complained Vishnu Arekar. “Whenever there are nuclear leakages into the water of the well heat up like of a geyser. But as the water is precious and scarce, caution is thrown to the winds and bathing, drinking and washing takes place as usual,” added Arekar.On being told about Chernobyl disaster (1986) radiation hazards and nuclear effluent leakage Ashraf Abdul Shiekh of Phopharan-Dandi Machimar Samiti asked, “If there is radiation hazards then why do Nuclear Power Corporation and TAPS officials work and stay in the colony along with their families? When people asked for roads, there will be accidents,” he said, seeking to justify the nuclear leakage! Dandi is the village of fisherfolk community. After any leakage or accident in TAPS, the youths vent their anger through a short-lived campaign against the plant authorities. They are worked up, when told about radiation and Pokhran tests, and they asked whom has the plant benefited.Tarapur’s units are within a range of 100 kilometres of Mumbai that is more alarming since TAPS has continuously turned into serious safety problems. An international nuclear expert has described it as ‘one of the ‘dirtiest nuclear plants in the world’. An accident at Tarapur, in certain types of weather conditions, could make Mumbai city uninhabitable, destroying in the process the commercial capital of the country which generates almost a third of the country’s GDP, India’s most vital ports, pharmaceutical industries and a major part of their industries would also have to be written off.

Accidents in nuclear reactors fall into two broad classes: Power excursion accidents and coolant accidents. Both types of accidents could lead to breach of the reactor vessel and containment structure in which the reactor is housed resulting in release of radioactivity into the atmosphere. According to a senior official of US Nuclear Regulatory Committee, the most worrisome is the American containment design ‘GI Mark 1 (which a reader may with good reason assume to be the design adopted for Tarapur and other nuclear plants). The New Yorker states a Nuclear Regulatory Commission Agency (NRCA) study that showed “something like a 90 percent probability of that containment failing during serious accidents.”“What would happen if a similar holocaust like Chernobyl takes place in Tarapur?” asked Gopal Dongerwar. “Chernobyl disaster was preceded by a series of minor accidents and safety lapses which were not taken as warnings of the catastrophe that was lurking not far away.” He added, “Over 20,000 inhabitants of the villages nearby TAPS want to leave.” The original demand of the villagers was for relocation but it had a possibility that their demand for an alternative piece of land might be rejected because as per government only those displaced by irrigation projects are entitled for land compensation.In the absence of any concrete action Chernobyls and Bhopals seem to be lot of those living near the Tarapur atomic site.

RAJASTHAN ATOMIC POWER STATIONTuberculosis, congenital deformities, rashes, skin cancer, night blindness, paralysis etc are strange ailments that afflict villagers living within a 16 km. radius of Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) overlooking the Aravalli ranges in Rawatbhata. Though ‘nucleocrats’ have given clean chit to the plant, anti-nuclear activists and villagers living around RAPS are convinced that continued exposure to deadly radiation is taking their lives. Jharjhani village located “downwind” from the RAPS power station is the worst affected. More than half the village’s 1500 population is suffering from some ailment or the other. Birth of deformed babies, stillbirths, miscarriages and infertility are common here. Confirmed, Dhapo Bai, the ‘dai’ of Jharjhani village, “40 to 50 deformed babies are born every year. The incidence of premature births has also increased.” Many of the children born over the past years in Jharjhani have congenital deformities. Shyam Lal’s son was born without an ear, while Jhandu Lal’s wife gave birth to a boy without an arm. Fourteen-year old Nandu spends most of his time confined to his room. When he was 2 years of age his legs were reduced to rickety bones and he can barely support the weight of his body. It’s not polio because his parents swear that he had been immunised.Thamla, a village situated just 5 km. away from nuclear power plant, this small-sized village has a population of 600. The sight of children with deformities moving around is commonplace. “You stand here for fifteen minutes and count

the number of sick. I have been living in this village all life but have never seen so many people struck with same kind of disease,” said Shyam Sunder.

RAJASTHAN ATOMIC POWER STATIONDr. Sangamitra D. Gadekar of Anumukti, Vedchhi(Gujarat) and her team conducted a study of five villages within a 10 km. radius of RAPS. Gadekar’s team observed extraordinary rise in congenital and chronic diseases in the area since the plant came up in 1972. Significantly, there was a sharp increase in congenital deformities in people who were born after the plant came up. The team found out that tumours were seven times more prevalent in villages near the plant, when compared with the control villages over 50 km. away.Built at the cost of Rs.800 crores, the nuclear facility in Rawatbhata in Kota district of Rajasthan was constructed in collaboration with Atomic Energy Canada Ltd (AECL). AECL supplied a pressurised heavy-water Candu (the trademarked name for “Canada Deuterium Uranium” reactor that began operating in 1972). But co-operation ended when India had its nuclear test in 1974, demonstrating a potential weapons capability. Left to its own devices, India began building modified clones of the Canadian design. India’s Candu clone programme has not kept with design improvements the Canadians have made over the years. Confirms A. Gopalkrishnan, former Chairman, India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board says, “Early versions of the ‘Candu’ had inadequate emergency core-cooling system-which are crucial if the normal cooling system fail. The Canadians developed a multi-stage, higher-pressure emergency core-cooling system which they incorporated in all their Candus ever since. But no such upgrading was made at Rajasthan’s two reactors. No Candu in the world except the four Indian ones, including 2 reactors in Rajasthan and the other two in Madras Atomic Power Station operate today with the early vintage emergency core-cooling system.” However, with abundant uranium deposits and limited conventional energy resources, India saw nuclear plants as a cheap source of power and the gestation period too short. In fact, the plant construction has been slower and more costly than expected. Equipment problems have forced operators to run the

reactors well below capacity, so that nuclear energy meets just 2% of India’s power needs. The dangers posed by the nuclear reactors are magnified by the fact that they are in their way out in nuclear-rich USA and Russia. And the VVER Russian reactors purchased by the Indian Government for nuclear power generations are ‘highly unsafe’. Russian nuclear industry faced by financial crisis and wanted to sell the VVER reactors China, Iran and India- in fact to anybody ready to buy them. Russian academician Valeri Lvanovich documented evaluation of the VVER reactors that point to its serious safety problems. The Chairman of the Russian Security Council confirmed he was totally opposed to nuclear power and would not allow installation of any atomic reactor plant in Russia. But they had dozen VVER units in stock at a tag of $1.5 billion a piece. He was not prepared, however, to stop the sale to a friendly country like India. New orders for nuclear stations have dwindled to almost nothing due to economic recession, but more importantly due to stringent requirements of such plants.In the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, nine nations signed an agreement to phase out the use of nuclear power by the end of twentieth century, and agreed not to construct any reactors henceforth, India is among the few major exceptions. With just a few reactors hooked to the national grid, India derives a mere 2 per cent of its electricity. But an ambitious plan to generate 10,000 MW of nuclear electricity is now under implementation.RAPS have continuously displayed serious safety problems. It has a dismal track record since it came up in 1972 and it was shut down more than 250 times. An International nuclear expert has described it as one of the ‘dirtiest nuclear plants in the world’. An accident at Rawatbhata, in certain type of weather conditions, could make the make the villages dotting the Kota and Chittorgarh districts- and the new colonies coming up- uninhabitable. In RAPS, one of the units has been shut down permanently due to the damage in the pressurized heavy water reactor of Unit 1 that later led to water leakage from one of the shields. According to Prof. Dhirendra Sharma, Convenor of the Committee for Sane Nuclear Policy (COSNUP), the leak was located in a highly radioactive area. Several crores of rupees were spent on repair works. The unit, however, had to be shut down in 1985. On 24th January 1992, RAPS, Unit-1, which was not operative, experienced a rupture in a hose of primary heat transport filter and released more than four tonnes of Heavy Water. The accident was serious one as it led to “actuation” of the emergency core cooling systems. The problem of decontamination at RAPS-2 continues to be extremely precarious. Reviews were undertaken so as to know what chemicals should be used, and what necessary safety procedures were to be undertaken for controlling and monitoring safety conditions during the decontamination process. The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) did not know what mode of operation of purification of the system was to be followed, and how to dispose of the waste so produced. The project was reviewed with a view to determining the necessary engineering and hardware changes. In August 1992, decontamination was undertaken and 110 kg. of highly contaminated iron was removed. During this

process, an undisclosed number of contract labourers were exposed to high collective doses of radiation. There are reports that daily wageworkers at the plant fall sick occasionally. When the workers get fever while working doctors employed in the plant give them treatment but if the fever persists they are shifted to a hospital at Jhalawar. There have many deaths of the workers in the hospital. Moreover, casual labourers complain that in a high-risk plant like RAPS, the authorities are somewhat callous towards do their safety. The daily wage earners do not get facility that the permanent workers are entitled to even in the crucial areas. Murali Dhar, who worked at the RAPS for some time, testifies to this, “We were given badge and told to run if the badge became black. I was working inside and my badge became black but the contractor told me that he would give me an additional Rs.100 if I stayed on.” The hostility of the locals towards RAPS is brewing up. The plant had to be set up after displacing thousands of peasants from their agricultural land. Villagers were jobs at the plant. But many villagers like Mamraj complained that nothing of the sort was done. The terrible situation faced by the poor villagers near RAPS, a situation not of their making- is the problem of survival which they have to face and fight.