Safety at Kudankulam

Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) has been in news for the opposition of public for the proposed commissioning of nuclear power plant there. The public outcry has been invigorated by the Fukushima disaster in June, 2011. In this context an article “Safety at the core of Kudankulam nuclear reactors” in The Hindu (dt March 11, 2012) highlights the safety measures undertaken by NPCIL. Here an attempt has been made to share the gist of that article.
Following safety measures have been undertaken by NPCIL to ensure the safety of the plant personnel, the public and the environment as a whole.
 The KKNPP has been built at 7.5 mteres above mean sea level. A shore protection bund has been constructed all along the shore to a height of 8 meters to the mean sea level. This would mitigate the probability of tsunami, tidal variation and storm surge collapsing the KKNPP and leading to Fukushima-like disaster.
 The plant has been fitted with Seismic sensors which safely shut down the reactor in case the seismicity exceeds the preset levels. This insulates the KKNPP from any likely earthquake.
 Passive heat removal systems have been instituted to provide cooling for the removal of decay heat using atmospheric air.
 The confinement of radio-activity within the building is of utmost importance. The reactor building has dual-confinement structure. The inner containment is a pre-stressed concrete structure with the thickness of 1.2 meters. The outer containment is a reinforced concrete structure with the thickness of 0.6 meters. These two barriers ensure that radio-activity does not reach the public domain.
 Hydrogen re-combiners have been placed extensively throughout the plant. These re-combiners would convert the hydrogen generated during any accident into water. This prevents any likely hydrogen-explosion within the containment as happened in Fukushima.
 A huge vessel weighing 101 tonnes has been installed at KKNPP. This would collect the molten core, cool it and maintain it in sub-critical state in the event of any damage to the fuel core.
 A special fish protection facility has been instituted at KKNPP. This would assist the fishes which come along the sea water used in cooling systems within the reactor site to go back to sea. This would conserve fish population in particular and bio-diversity in general.

Visit of Hilary Clinton to Myanmar

Myanmar, India’s neighbouring country, is one of the most impoverished nations in south-east Asia. The nation is conspicuous by the absence of democratic government. Military overthrew democratic government in 1962. Since then, the nation there has been mounting pressure from the west on the military government to encourage transition to democracy. This pressure was culminated in the imposition of economic sanctions on it by the West led by US.

Surprisingly, topsy-turvy seems to have happened in the US policy towards Myanmar. This was evident in the visit of Hiliary Clinton, US Secretary of State to Myanmar in December 2011. This reversal in the policy is attributed to the efforts of Obama’s administration to check the growing influence of China in the region. The visit has come in the wake of annulment of multi-billion dollar with China to build a hydro-electric project on R. Irrawady.

The US has assured that it would no longer impede the bank loans from IMF and World Bank. It is said that the US is viewing resources-rich Myanmar as an attractive investment avenue. The Myanmarese government is also contemplating a law giving easy terms to US companies with tax exemption upto eight years.

The repercussion of reversal of US stand is to be seen in the time to come by.

BMD successfully test-fired

A new feather to the cap of DRDO was added on February 10, 2012 when it successfully test-fired Ballistic Missile Defence(BMD) capability.

Indian BMD program was started to successfully foil any possible missile attack by Pakistan. It was launched in late 1990s when Pakistan test-fired Ghauri ballistic missiles.

Till date, DRDO has launched six BMD missions successfully.

On February 10, 2012, Prithvi missile took off from Integrated Test Range (ITR) off the Odisha coast at 10.10 am. It mimicked the trajectory of ‘attacker’ missile. The interceptor missile was launched from Wheeler insland off the Odisha coast and it successfully destroyed the ‘enemy Prithvi’ at 10.15 am at an altitude of 15 km. The interceptor is claimed to be of having capability to destroy missiles belonging upto 2000 km range. While the attacker, in this case, belonged merely to the range of 600 km.

DRDO says it needs ship-based platforms for launching interceptors far away from shores.