http://scroll.in/article/805119/nuclear-leak-in-kakrapar-may-be-more-serious-than-the-government-is-telling-us


Nuclear leak in Kakrapar may be more serious than the government is telling us

by Kumar Sundaram

Published a day ago. 2016-03-15T11:30:00+05:30
Updated a day ago. 2016-03-15T11:30:54.258206+05:30

There have been no updates after the day of the accident. What is the government hiding?

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On March 11, news came out that there has been a leak at the Kakrapar Atomic Power Station in Gujarat. A press statement put out by the plant operator, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India, on that day stated that Unit-1 of the station had to be shut down after the primary heat transport system sprang a leak. The operator reassured that there was no release of radiation and workers were safe.

Since then though, there has been no update – neither from the Nuclear Power Corporation nor from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, which monitors nuclear safety in India. As of writing, it has been three days since the accident.

Blanket of secrecy

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Last heard, the plant officials said they are yet to ascertain the cause of the leak. The current chief of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board said to the press that “the magnitude of the coolant system failure is significant”.

'Situation might be serious'

The secrecy would perhaps have not been so absolute if ordinary citizens were allowed to use geiger-counters in India to measure radiation. In India the government disallows the use, citing national security, which is outrageous give that globally it is normal for citizens to monitor radiation and ensure their own safety. Even after separation of civilian and military nuclear installations following the Indo-US deal in 2005, the nuclear industry in India continues to enjoy insulation from public scrutiny.

Dr A Gopalakrishnan, who headed the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board from 1993 to 1996, said the situation in Kakrapar might be more serious than what we are being told. He sent an urgent note that I published on the online nuclear resource page I run, DiaNuke.org.


“Some reports indicate that the containment has been vented to the atmosphere at least once , if not more times , which I suspect indicates a tendency for pressure build up in that closed space due to release of hot heavy water and steam into the containment housing . If this is true, the leak is not small , but moderately large , and still continuing. No one confirms that any one has entered the containment (in protective clothing) for a quick physical assessment of the situation , perhaps it is not safe to do so because of the high radiationfields inside...all this points to the likelihood that what Kakrapar Unit-1 is undergoing is a small Loss-of-Coolant Accident (LOCA) in progress. It is most likely that one or more pressure tubes (PT) in the reactor (which contain the fuel bundles) have cracked open, leaking hot primary system heavy-water coolant into the containment housing”

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