Why All of India’s
Nuclear Plants Should Immediately be Shut Down
By
NM Sampath Kumar
Special to South Asia Tribune
IT
IS WELL known that after conducting a “nuclear implosion”
in 1974, using clandestinely diverted fissile material from Canadian-supplied
reactors, India consistently maintained a responsible anti-proliferation
stance for a quarter century. While declining to sign the “discriminatory”
Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), India fully abided by
all the NPT provisions.
Opening
the Conference on Disarmament, the country’s Foreign Secretary
Salman Hyder even declared: “India does not consider possession
of nuclear weapons as a necessary measure to insure national security
of any country.”
The
1974 blast was essentially a political game by Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi, the tyrant with dictatorial ambitions who later
usurped emergency powers upon being dethroned by the court for
corrupt electoral practices. She only wanted to get herself painted
as a “Durga” (Hindu goddess of Energy) in the superstitious
minds of the illiterate, gullible masses. She did succeed in her
plans with the help of obliging sycophants in the Department of
Atomic Energy (DAE).
Politicians
who ruled New Delhi after her knew very well that pursuing a program
to acquire weapons of mass destruction (WMD) would in fact weaken
the military strength of the country; any nuclear proliferation
would sure provide a justification to Islamabad’s friends
to arm it with nuclear weapons as well. Turning Pakistan nuclear
would snatch away from India its superiority in terms of size
in conventional warfare. It would also nullify the advantage of
strategic depth.
Then,
how was it that Dr R Chidambaram, Chief of India’s Atomic
Energy Commission (AEC) and Secretary of the Department of Atomic
Energy (DAE) tendered in 1998 the “advice” to New
Delhi’s 24-party coalition led by hardline Hindu obscurantists
that tests were “essential”? Incidentally, the scientist
narrowly missed being crowned with “Bharat Ratna”
award and may be the ceremonial post of President as well.
As
it happened, APJ Abdul Kalam beat him to the post. Interestingly
Kalam, who is currently being hailed by millions of brainwashed
Indians as a great nuclear scientist, was never associated with
DAE during his service in science bureaucracy and is not known
to have carried out any research leading to a doctoral degree!
Why I argue that all of India’s nuclear-related establishments
should be wound up forthwith is not on strategic basis but on
concerns of safety compromised by endemic corruption in the field
of nuclear components, of which I am a manufacturer . After all,
one cannot leave nuclear safety in the hands of creeping crawlies.
The
world cannot repose trust in the likes of Dr. MR Srinivasan, Dr.
R Chidambaram, Prof. Rama Rao, KS Parthasarathy, YSR Prasad, GR
Srinivasan, A Sanat Kumar, SK Bhasin, S Rajagopal and others.
They either do not possess the required caliber to manage the
inherently dangerous technology or lack an integrity equal to
the required caliber, even if they do posses it. If the world
is to avert a tragedy of a scale that can overwhelm the entire
planet, all nuclear-related establishments in India need to be
closed down forthwith.
A
team of unbiased nuclear experts under IAEA must get the mandate
to inspect, cap, and roll back the nuclear program. I have been
trying to draw the attention of concerned agencies to the alarming
levels of corruption-induced high-risk radiation in several regions
of India.
Collective
radiation exposure of workers at Kakrapara Atomic Power Plant
near Surat in Gujarat, according to Atomic Energy Regulatory Board
(AERB) Chairman, is at three times the permitted level. Excessive
leaks of tritium-contaminated coolant from reactors should be
taken as a premonition, which makes nuclear calamity a distinct
possibility waiting to happen. After all, it may not take long
for excessive leaks to culminate into a pressure tube rupture.
When that does happen, it will be blamed on fraudulent procurement
practices right under the nose of dysfunctional watchdogs.
Arrogance
of power and bureaucratic callousness pervade the corridors of
the State-owned monopoly nuclear power utility of India, Nuclear
Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL). Nepotism and sycophancy
have bred a dangerous cover-up culture.
Design
flaws and construction lapses, which the officers are resisting
to set right, are pushing the region closer to disaster. What
is more, the very same shenanigans are being committed in the
procurement of items for the so-called rehabilitation of the dud
reactors in Kalpakkam.
I
have been campaigning against the irresponsible attitude, of taking
liberties with nuclear safety, for more than five years. Several
of my letters and reports on my campaign have appeared in the
Press during 1995-2001. However, I have been unable to get Indian
authorities to properly address the lapses in safety and reliability,
committed through fraudulent procurement practices.
There
is a diabolic nexus operating in India's secretive nuclear establishment.
The concerned agencies have to be sensitized to the magnitude
of lapses in safety and reliability. Corrective actions need to
be taken before it becomes too late.
The
nexus that needs to be broken is between unscrupulous business
establishments and corrupt officers of NPCIL and the sacred cow
Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). The nexus has led to siphoning
off of mind-boggling amounts of public funds over several years.
Additionally, palming off poor quality parts to construct nuclear
facilities compromises reliability and safety. The fall out of
nepotism, arrogance and take-it-easy culture pervading the nuclear
establishment may well turn out to be a nuclear disaster. The
scale of damage can prove more devastating than Bhopal gas leak
or the earthquake that hit Kutchh/Gujarat in Jan 2001.
Atomic
Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) Chairman SP Sukhatme declared on
February 20, 2001 that the collective radiation dose received
by workers in Kakrapara Atomic Power Station near Surat was three
times more than international standards. He was addressing a four-day
international conference on Radiation Protection Measurement.
Sukhatme urged NPCIL to modify the design of their pressurized
heavy water reactors (PHWR) so that tritium leakage from the heavy
water is minimized and collective radiation exposure is reduced
considerably. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Chairman Anil Kakoddkar,
whom NPCIL reports to, was on the dais and assured that "safety
culture" of atomic energy department was total.
Records
speak otherwise. NPCIL is actually plagued by a huge cover-up
culture. Consider this: The excessive leakage from the coolant
channels does not require any "design improvement" but
only honest conformance to original design intent. The reason
for excessive leaks happens to be the unabashed fudging of the
specifications AEC had obtained from Canada some 30 years ago.
Serious
irregularities had been detected even as procurement action for
building Kakrapara atomic power station was on. NPCIL officials
were found to be showering undue favors on certain contractors
in their good books at the expense of quality and reliability.
Drawings and specifications were being prepared incorporating
fictitious 'requirements' and peculiar wordings for taking audit
persons for a joy ride.
Thousands
of components supplied by the cartel were inspected by NPCIL's
"accommodating" Quality Assurance engineers and approved
as conforming to these drawings. Honest
engineers at NPCIL are convinced of the potential dangers of the
horrific blunders. Yet, none of them dared to point out to the
big bosses that the lapses can lead to failures in service
I
came across more cases of fraudulent practices at NPCIL from tenders
floated for procurement of items for Kaiga 1 & 2 power stations
in Karnataka and RAPP 3 & 4 power stations at Rawatbhata near
Kota, Rajasthan. The Coolant Channels of these four recently commissioned
reactors are the worst victims of corruption and manipulation.
In
the early 90s, I had obtained "venture capital" assistance
from Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) and promoted
Exotic Equipments Private Limited (EEPL). The Project was for
developing coolant channel components of nuclear reactors. During
the course of development of one of the items of coolant channels,
Bearing Sleeve, I stumbled upon a huge scandal involving high
officials of NPCIL. Reliability and safety of atomic power stations
were being compromised through fraudulent practices. Being well
aware of disastrous consequences the lapses can have, I was opposed
to hushing up the lapses/malfeasance. Also, I refused to take
part in other DAE projects for the development of mass destruction
weapons.
NPCIL
probably considers that India is a not a signatory to Murphy's
Law which states, "What can go wrong, will go wrong"!
Any impartial probe will take the veil off the blunders that are
causing routine tritium leaks from coolant channels of Indian
reactors.
That
the Indian nuclear officialdom was resorting to obfuscations instead
of coming clean on the "dastardly" allegations of fraudulent
procurement practices was ample proof that corrupt bureaucrats
working within the nuclear establishment had done deals with unscrupulous
contractors supplying the reactors with dangerously substandard
components.
Can
any admitted possibility of premature failure, due to quality
lapses, of nuclear reactor parts be non-serious? There was only
a deafening silence from AERB. Incidentally, a massive spill of
six tons of contaminated heavy water was reported in MAPS 2 reactor
at Kalpakkam on March 26, 1999. This was due to malfunctioning
of sealing components of coolant channels considered non-serious
by AERB. Mercifully the reactor was under shut-down for carrying
out in-service-inspection of coolant channels and a disaster did
not happen.
With
such an "accommodating" regulator conniving with its
corrupt and inept officials, NPCIL is currently going ahead with
procurement, committing the very same blunders. Continuing with
the cover up culture may result in disillusionment of the public
with nuclear energy per se when even genuinely minor accidents
occur due to the lapses.
That
has happened in the US, Japan, and France. For an energy-starved
developing country like India, throwing away the baby along with
the bath water will be particularly tragic. The Times of India
editorially echoed the demand as early as October 5, 2001, saying:
"Faulty reactors ought to be shut down forthwith and refurbished
before commissioning again." Yet all seem to be waiting for
a major disaster.
The
writer is an Indian Scientist and Manufacturer of Nuclear Components
