The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant is in serious
safety-trouble
by FP Editors Jun 19, 2013
34 Comments Print
#A Gopalakrishnan #Atomic Energy Regulatory Board
#CriticalPoint #Electro Magnetic Interference #KKNP #Kudankulam Nuclear Power
plant #NewsTracker #NPCIL #Pressuried Heavy Water Reactors #Tamil Nadu
Looks like the power-starved Tamil Nadu has to give up hopes
of relief from the yet-to-be-born pride of India’s atomic energy establishment
– the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant.
With false promises of a commissioning sometime early this
year, similar to the promises last year, Tamil Nadu had relied heavily on the
plant to ameliorate its power deficit of 4000 MW. The plant, however, is in
serious safety-trouble.
In a detailed editorial article in the New Indian Express,
former Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) Chairman, A Gopalakrishnan has
made a new startling revelation – that the Instrumentation and Control system
(I&C) of the KKNP, that is crucial for the safety of any nuclear power reactor,
is faulty.
Kudankulam nuclear plant.
Simply put, the I&C systems at KKNP, because of their
faulty design and installation, are apparently picking up erroneous signals that
can mislead the safety systems of the Plant, which can lead to accidents.
Sounds really scary!
The reason, says the insider-turned-nuclear-whistleblower,
is the failure of KKNP to adhere to the highest standards of cable-laying,
routing and earthing.
Referring to the 2009-10 report of the AERB, he says “the
cable problems at Koodankulam have a long history.” Even 2010-2011 report
refers to deviations of cable-laying and their justifications. However, the
2011-2012 report is totally silent on the issue.
Subsequently, Gopalakrishnan refers to news reports in 2011
that cited missing power and control cables, which necessitated breaking open
the containment domes of the reactor. “One wonders how such a serious error was
committed by the NPCIL engineers and their contractors”.
The cables apparently were missing for several kilometers
after the dome was completed!
The tireless nuclear-safety campaigner says that this was
probably because NPCIL team proceeded with the I&C work without waiting for
documentation and instructions to arrive from Russia. They relied on their
experience on PHWR (Pressuried Heavy Water Reactors – India’s mainstay in
nuclear power for many years) without realising that PWR/VVER (the new
technology being used in Koodankulam) requirements would be significantly
different.
The delay in Russians transferring the I&C design and
installation is corroborated by the report of the World Nuclear Association.
He charges that “while redoing the work, the NPCIL team is
unlikely to have come close to meeting the Russian design intent or conformed
the installation documents received from them. The origin of the problem lies
in the massive installation error of the NPCIL”.
Gopalakrishnan’s latest expose is yet another shot in the
arm for the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), which has been
fighting a losing, but resolute, battle against the Plant. Even supporters of
nuclear energy are not happy with the lack transparency at KKNP.
Had things been normal, why such an inordinate delay in
commissioning the plant?
“It is most likely that the KKNPP cable system, as completed
today, has not conformed to the norms and standards of cable selection, EMI
shielding, or layout as per Russian, Indian or any other standards.”
Gopalakrishnan summarises.
“No wonder the EMI problem is persisting, because there is
no other short-cut solution other than re-doing a sizable part of the I&C
cabling and its layout in accordance with a set of modern standards, agreeable
also to the Russians. This may take several more months and extensive
re-working, but this must be done in the interest of public safety. As directed
by the SC, the group consisting of NPCIL, AERB, MoEF and TNPCB must certainly
find an acceptable resolution of this problem and include it in their report to
the apex court.”
http://www.firstpost.com/india/the-kudankulam-nuclear-power-plant-is-in-serious-safety-trouble-886919.html
rashokkumar replies to IAF101 • 5 days ago
We have only your wisdom to go by which are not true
facts-that too cheap to meter stuff and all that sort of rubbish regarding
things which are not yet there. Look at the facts(Richard Bramhall of Low Level
Radiation Campaign):
A new review shows the
conventional radiation risk model cannot be used to predict
health effects of
radioactivity inside the body.
On May 22 InTech published a review of
evidence that DNA damage caused by inhaling
and ingesting man-made radioactivity is having serious
health effects. This is
the first time such a wide-ranging review of the genetic
mechanisms of harm from
nuclear discharges has been published in the scientific
literature.
The review, by Professor Chris
Busby, is entitled "Aspects of DNA damage
from internal radiation exposures".
It is in a book called "New Research Directions in
DNA Repair".
It vindicates the belief that incorporated (internal)
radioactivity is more
dangerous than predicted by the International Commission on
Radiological
Protection (ICRP). Much of the information reviewed has been
in the literature
for decades but has been sidelined or ignored.
The evidence shows that ICRP's
use of “absorbed dose” is invalid for many radionuclides
when they are internal.
“Absorbed dose” is based on an external irradiation paradigm
and therefore
averages the energy of radioactive decays across large
volumes of body tissue.
By contrast, some forms of radioactivity expose
DNA to high densities of ionisation. The
review defines and discusses situations where genetic damage
is massively more
likely than from external radiation at the same
"dose"; 1) biochemical affinity
for DNA , 2) transmutation, 3) hot particles, 4)
sequential emitters (“Second Event Theory”), 5) low energy
beta
emitters, and 6) the “Secondary Photoelectron Effect”:
Some substances (for example THORIUM, Strontium-90 and
Uranium) have
high biochemical affinity for DNA so a
large proportion of what is inside the body will be
chemically bound to
DNA . For this reason the radiation events
associated with them are massively more likely to damage
DNA structures than the same dose delivered
externally.
Transmutation, where the radioactive decay of a
radio-element
changes it into a different element (e.g. Carbon-14 changing
to Nitrogen), has
mutagenic effects far greater than would be expected on the
basis of “absorbed
dose”. This has been known since the 1960s but it has been
ignored by risk
agencies such as ICRP, UNSCEAR and BEIR.
Hot particles, especially those which emit very short-range
alpha radiation, have obvious implications for high local
doses to tissue
where they are embedded.
The “Second
Event Theory” concerns the decay sequences of some
radionuclides which decay
to a short-lived daughter. Strontium 90 decaying to Yttrium
90 is an example;
the Yttrium 90 has a half-life of 2½ days so the theory is
that the first
event (decay of Strontium 90) may damage a cell's
DNA which then sets about repairing itself.
The repair process is known to be very radiosensitive and
there is a finite
probability that the second event (the subsequent Yttrium
decay) inflicts
further damage which cannot be repaired.
A good example of a low
energy beta emitter is Tritium. (Tritium is projected to
account for
99.8% of the radioactivity in discharges from the
"generic" design of reactor
planned for the UK). The review compares Tritium with
Caesium-137. The very low decay energy of Tritium means that
delivering the
same absorbed dose as the Caesium requires 90 times as many
radiation tracks
from Tritium. This density of events occurring at low doses
suggests a
mechanism to explain experimental results that show Tritium
is a greater
mutagenic hazard than ICRP would expect.
Elements with large numbers of protons (e.g. Uranium,
Plutonium) absorb external gamma radiation efficiently,
re-emitting it in the
form of very short-range photoelectrons indistinguishable
from
beta radiation. This is known as the Secondary Photoelectron
Effect
(SPE). The review criticizes papers which used Monte Carlo
methodology in
attempts to minimise the importance of SPE after New
Scientist [3]
published a report on it in 2008.
The review examines various
epidemiological studies of Radium exposures which are cited
in defence of the
ICRP risk model. It cites papers published in the literature
decades ago showing
that the Radium studies are fatally flawed because they
omitted many people who
had died (from both cancer and non-cancer diseases) before
the "exposed" groups
were assembled.
The review shows that enhancement
factors arising from the mechanisms above can theoretically
be as high as
10,000-fold. It lists epidemiological evidence where such
enhancements are
required to explain clear effects which are denied by the
industry, regulators
and government on the basis of low average doses. One of
these is the recent
KiKK study which, if the doubled risk of childhood leukaemia
near NPPs in
Germany is caused by radioactive discharges, implies a
10,000-fold error in ICRP
risk estimates. KiKK is at one extreme of such evidence; at
the other, the
Seascale cluster implies an error of 200.
In conclusion, the review lists
key experimental studies which will inform on the issues.
And KS Parthasarathy formerly of the AERB has fantasy and
this fantasy is being given the force of truth fraudulently. Beware the
scamsters who in spite of the negative energy audit want nukes.
And people must educate themselves of the Catch 22 situation
that hydro power and nukes exemplify.
•
Avatar
IAF101 replies to
rashokkumar • 5 days ago
1. Your entire
"Ramayana" is amusing considering that this same
"controversy" has been going for decades without any tangible proof
to back up the claims. Further the whole "Low level Radiation
Campaign" is as credible as Voodoo or Snake Charming based on their
outrageous claims. Low-level "radiation" is a fact of nature as every
school child knows and everyday the "low level" radiation a human is
exposed to has many sources including the sun, radiative particles in that
atmosphere, in the soil, in building material etc. Every time a patient gets an
CT-scan or X-ray they are subjected to "radiation" - so what ???
2. The most
important consideration is the kind of radiation and the dosages a person is
exposed to! Those are the ONLY factors that warrant investigation. This
cock-and-bull "low level radiation" and "absorbed
radiation" nonsense is pure quackery. Even the radium in a wrist watch
gives off "low level" radiation but you don't see this much drama. As
soon as a nuclear power plant is commissioned, these kind of eco-nuts come
crawling out of the ground like rats with their Geiger counters crying about
the low level radiation and claiming they are dying! Firstly, where are the
high energy a-radiative material lying around outside ?? Secondly, why do they
believe that these particles remain in the body while numerous other medical
radioactive substances are flushed from the body on their own ? And lastly, how
do they believe that such "internal" radiation will persist once the
individual is away from this mysterious source of high energy alpha particle
emanating radioactive material ? Magic ??
3. I leave you
with only one point - If these "claims" are true then why have the
US, Japanese, Russian and European Atomic Energy Regulators not mandated the
decommissioning of all nuclear power plants ? Even Japan is building new
nuclear power plants!
At this point First Post closed the discussion for comments!
So the trolls should have the last word!
It is useful to the public to refute the claims of people
like the Avatar IAF 101 so that nukes all over will be forced to be shutdown
now, so that wastes do not accumulate further and the trolls and shills make
all the effort to keep the nuke wastes generated so far effectively from all
life in such a way that living is still healthy, wholesome and thus full.
Refutation of Para 1 and 2 above of the Avatar IAF 101
In fact this was the very reason why many of us were
convinced that the unscientific witchcraft of applying the external radiation
averaging model on tissues for internal radiation emitters was false. In fact the radioactive rays penetrated the
cells to which the radioactive particulates were bound at
powers of hundreds of megawatts!See by Google Search Stop Nuclear Energy Programmes:
Link: http://plutoniumaradiumabillionpeoplehitdna.blogspot.in/2007/12/stop-nuclear-energy-programmes.html
This caused such an explosion of the cell that
the vibrations communicated to neighbouring cells in such a way as to cause
genomic instability in cell reproduction subtly even several generations of
cells after! Thus dose as an averaging concept was meaningless for internal
emitters. The evidence on the ground regarding internal emitter effects must
form the basis of a risk model. The evidence on the ground regarding women
radium dial painters for clocks sounded the alarm regarding the lethality of
alpha emitters! Radioactive elements new to nature were produced in fission
reactors and uranium mining brought uranium in proximity to life. This uranium
was inhaled and ingested through food, water and air and Jaduguda saw families
where previously cancers, birth defects, infant mortality were unknown spread
widely across the hapless families and UCIL’s ICRP model could not predict the
risk of internal emission because the ICRP model was false. People should read
the full story summarized in ECRR 2010 and the work referred to above to see
the concordance of experience with scientifically realistic risk estimates. It
is truth on the ground around nuclear fuel cycle establishments without
exception that builds up to a realistic risk assessment regarding health
effects of ionizing radiation. Read
the overwhelming evidence of millions of Indian infant mortality in the nuclear
era because of the ingestion and inhalation of ionizing radiation by their
parents! Google search for india infant mortality and nuclear power get an idea
of the random premeditated perfect mass murder in the nuclear era. And the
radiation pollution is growing as nuclear programmes periodically pollute the
earth with their effluents even during normal operation. People should stop
being frogs in the well and vote down the falsehood that the IAEA and AERB, the
ICRP etc are propagating. Para 3 of the Avatar IAF 101:
See by Google search for Normal operations of nuclear fuel cycle, 1980 to 2012,synergistically complicit in causing 110 million infant mortalities worldwide and 10 million in India.
Regulators do not see. Neither do they do their homework.
See the energy audit of the indian nuclear programme by Googling and see the
truth: Nuclear energy programmes consume much much more than they ever produce.
That’s because modern civilization’s base is falsehood and destructive of all
life because it is a society of specialists:
In living in this world by his own will and skill the
stupidest peasant or tribesman is more competent than the most intelligent
worker or technician or intellectual in a society of specialists. See
Uttarakhand and cloud bursts and landslides by a nuclear effect of dams?
The nuclear effect of dams caused the triggering of the
Chernobyl disaster(1986), the Narora Fire(1993), the Kashiwasaki Kariwa
damages(2007), the Fukushima disaster(2011). See by Google search The nuclear
effect in causing earthquakes. The catch 22 situation epitomizes within the
cell epigenetic effects and the mutation of humanity and all life by man’s
contraptions. The infinitely precious life or death dealers. Its your
considered choice based on scientific evidence. And science is only semi
prudent. And after doing your best to approach the best design, when there are
huge uncertaintaies regarding nukes, STOP! Adopt a normal way-trees! And
Reforestation and cooperation. Respect Nature not deplete it and explode to
barrenness.
HOW DID YOU ALLOW THIS?
http://www.save-children-from-radiation.org/2013/06/23/stunning-story-from-a-fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-power-plant-worker-interview-by-comedienne-oshidori-mako/
HOW DID YOU ALLOW THIS?
http://www.save-children-from-radiation.org/2013/06/23/stunning-story-from-a-fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-power-plant-worker-interview-by-comedienne-oshidori-mako/
