A positive aspect of modern life is that science has helped us move on from tragedies while learning from them while earlier fear of the unknown would have kept us stagnant. Fukushima was the modern era’s worst nuclear disaster, albeit one caused by a rare natural double-whammy of an earthquake and tsunami.
But on the bright side, science has picked up the pieces already and promised to make generation of civil nuclear energy in future safer as well as environmentally effective for mankind.
The IAEA envisages that 90 new nuclear plants will come up in the next 30 years, while newer countries are also joining in efforts to exploit green and clean energy. This will help in the long run, particularly if more fast breeder neutron reactors are built, in which the uranium can last in a stable form for a thousand years or longer. There are certainly issues like hugely expensive disposal of spent nuclear fuel from past and present reactors, but there is no reason to suspect that science won’t have the answers to that as well.
Nearer home, the inordinately-delayed first reactor of Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu is yet to become operational. If these delays are caused by the need to ensure optimum safety, as claimed or believed, then perhaps they can be condoned even as power-starved Tamil Nadu eagerly
awaits the day the plant will spit power into the grid safely. Kudankulam is a vital first step for India to move on to a safer nuclear power environment.