Highlighting the safety features of the Koodankulam nuclear plant, former President A.P.J Abdul Kalam today said even a Fukushima-like accident can be avoided in the coastal project in Tamil Nadu.
"Koodankulam plant has installed 154 Hydrogen recombiners across the plant which can absorb any leaked hydrogen and prevent any structural damage," Kalam, who visted protest-hit nuclear power project yesterday, said addressing international nuclear scientists here.
Sharing his experiences from Sunday's visit, he said Koodankulam plant plans to have a separate control unit for each of the reactors, to prevent cascading effect of reactor instability.
No structural collapse
In the case of Fukushima, one of the primary reasons for structural collapse was the explosion in the hydrogen which got out of control due to heat generated by the failure of providing continuous power supply to the spent fuel complex, he said.
The former president has thrown his weight behind the project and even released a list of ten points which can solve trouble the Centre's been having with the locals.
Following are Kalam's 10 points or, what we could call Koodan 'Kalam':
1. Construction of a four-lane highway connecting Kudankulam and villages 30 km around it with Madurai, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari,
2. A world-class hospital with over 500 beds, mobile medical facilities to locals and
3. Creation of 10,000 jobs to people in the radius of 30 to 60 km
4. Bank loans to youth with up to 25 per cent subsidy.
5. Creating infrastructure facilities like construction of green houses, multi-storeyed housing complex, and playgrounds.
6. Fishermen in the area should be provided with motorboats, small jetties and fish cold storage facilities.
7. Provide one million litres of drinking water through desalination process and water should be brought from Pechiparai reservoir in Kanyakumari district for agriculture and drinking water needs.
8. Setting up of five CBSE and state government syllabus schools with hostel facilities
9. Connecting all villages through broadband Internet and
10. Setting up of Disaster Protection and Management Centre and guiding selected youth to get permanent employment.
Kalam was making the inaugural address at the 21st International Conference on Structural Mechanics in Reactor Technology (SMiRT-21) in New Delhi.
On Germany's decision to give up nuclear power by 2022, Kalam said it was a power surplus developed nation which could afford to lose a few plants.
"More importantly, Germany has completely exhausted its nuclear resources. Thus, nuclear energy never fits into their goal of energy independence," Kalam said.
Making a case for pursuing nuclear energy, he said India was a leader of the new resource of nuclear fuel - Thorium - which is considered as a fuel of the future.
A very unique safety feature
Kalam said the most advanced safety feature in the Koodankulam 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 occurs, without leaking any radiation in the atmosphere.
He said the plant has been designed to withstand earthquake up to a stress of six on the Richter scale with an acceleration of 0.15g and have been tested up to 0.6g. The structure of the plant has been made with the highest safety standards which doubled containment and hermetically sealed, Kalam said.
To counter any risk from Tsunami and cyclones, the plant is elevated, to a minimum height of six metres (pump house) and the auxiliary diesel sets are at a height of 9.3 metres with a four time redundancy, Kalam said.
Moreover, the diesel generators are programmed to start automatically in the event of power failure and would continue to run for minimum period of 30 minutes without any human intervention.