NUCLEAR POWER IN INDIA AND ITS CONSEQUENCES Jashbhai Patel The government of India and its advisers (bureaucrats, scientists and economists) are deadly bent on using nuclear power for generating electricity. These learned men ignore the deadly accidents such as the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in USA, the 1986 Chernobyl accident in Russia and the 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan. These accidents have opened the eyes of many persons world over. Citizens of many countries are now against the nuclear power and their dissent becomes louder every day. In India too, the victims of nuclear power are struggling to voice their dissent. Unfortunately, they are treated brutally, as in the case of Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu. It is high time that the Government of India and its Parliament hear this sacred noise when the advanced countries are planning for a phased withdrawal of their nuclear establishments. The origin of nuclear power is inauspicious. Itis stained by the blood of Japanese people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Perhaps it may remain so for ever unless a miraculous breakthrough comes to light. America felt the guilt for inventing the most devastating weapon of war. In tum, it exaggerated the peaceful use of nuclear power. It built all over America the largest number of nuclear power stations in the world. Yet it could generate at the most 18 to 20% of its electricity requirement. Perhaps, it realized the limitation of nuclear power earlier than the other countries. It is noted that “the USA have not commissioned a new plant for decades.” To be exact, USA have not built a new reactor for the past 34 years. Europe too followed America. Those European countries, which possessed their own nuclear power technology used it to bi their nuclear power stations. The life of a power station is not long. At the most it is 40 years or a little more. Decommissioning old nuclear power station is hazardous. Its radioactive waste contaminates the surroundings. Hence, the station needs to be isolated. This is costly. Britair! spends more than 70 billion pounds to decommission its old nuclear -power stations. And this cost is rising.In Europe, France is the only country which obtains 78% of its electricity requirement from nuclear power stations. It is followed by Belgium (54%) and ‘Switzerland (37%). For all other European countries the percentage is less than 20.- In Europe, Germany is the most progressive country. It is not*bent on using nuclear power. It looks for alternative source of energy. Freiburg is “described as a solar city and is a leader in energy efficient housing.” Its Oko-Institute and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems are famous. The nearby country, Denmark too has laudable plans. In Asia, South Korea obtains 39% of its energy requirement from the nuclear power stations. It is followed by Japan (30%). Now we come to India. In India today (2016), there are 21 (may be 22) nuclear power reactors. These are found in seven places. These are; Tarapur in Maharastra, Rawatbhata in Rajasthan, Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu, Narora in Uttar Pradesh, Kakrapar in Gujarat, in Kamataka and Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu. Now we look at these places. TARAPUR ATOMC POWER STATION [TAPS] ‘Tarapurhas four nuclear power reactors. These are labeled as TAPS |, TAPS Il etc. CAPITAL COSTS OF OPERATING REACTORS STATION | CAPACITY | ORIGINAL | REVISED | Commercial | Cumulative (mw) cosT cost Operation Load (Crores) _| (Crores) _| Commencement | Factor (%) TAPSI 2x160 84 93 1969 and 1969 | 62.6 and and 63.1 TAPS IL i TAPS III | 2x540 2428 6100 | 2006 and 2005 | 61.5 and and 50.6 TAPS IV. TAPS | and II were supplied by General Electric of USA. The reactor capacity was 190(MW) each. The reactor was fuelled with enriched uranium. In the above table the reactor capacity is 160(MW). Why? See Comment.TAPS Ill and IV were designed in India but were a scaled up copy of a Canadian reactor that was purchased for Rajasthan. The Canadian reactor is called Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR). - The Tarapur site was chosen in August 1960. At that time @ few hundred people lived there in two villages. One village belonged to non-tribal people and the other village belonged to tribal people. The tribals were pushed out. The non-tribal village was relocated. The construction work was completed in 1969, whereas the people had to move out 9 years earlier in 1960. The further displacement of people took place when the construction of TAPS Ill and IV began. Two villages, Akarpatti and Pofran were evacuated. What happened to the people is not clearly recorded. ‘About 3000 families were affected. The list was incomplete. Many non-tribal and tribal families were not on the original list. “After a long and tough fight lasting 16 years, there was some success in 2006, 348 farmers who had lost their land to TAPS Ill and TAPS IV received a total of 210 hectares.” Comments ; TAPS | and 1! started functioning after going through many mishaps. The method used was that of trial and error. It took 5 years (1964-69) just to assemble a purchased reactor. After 1974 nuclear weapon test in Pokhran, TAPS | and Il went through ups and downs due to scarcity of enriched uranium. In fact the problems faced by the staff of this station are so many that it is better to skip them. “In 1985, the secondary steam generators [of TAPS | and Il] were isolated, that is they were not used, and power level was lowered to 160 MW.” TAPS Ill and IV took 15 to 16 [1990 - 2006] years to go from the planning and procurement stage to construction. TAPS | and II are 46 years old and may be ready for decommissioning, RAJASTHAN ATOMIC POWER STATION [RAPS] This station is located near a village called Rawatbhata. The nearest town is Kota. Rajasthan is sparsely populated state of India. There are some regions in Thar desert where population is nil. This suits the scientists of India to carry out their wild‘experiments. The 1974 and 1998 nuclear weapon tests were carried out in Pokhran near Jaisalmer. Rawatbhata region is sparsely populated and water from Rana Pratap Sagar Dam was easily available for the nuclear reactor. This site was ‘chosen for these factors. Rajasthan is the only state in India which is exposed to nuclear radiation to a considerable extent. Many people have suffered on this account. CAPITAL COST OF OPERATING REACTORS STATION | CAPACITY ] ORIGINAL | REVISED | Commercial | Cumulative (mw) | cost | Cost | Operation | Load Factor (Crores) | (Crores) | Commencement (%) RAPSI | 1x100 4 3 1973 19.9 RAPSIT | 1x200 58 703 7981 528 RAPS | 2x220 | 711.6 | 2511 | 2000and 2000 | 71.4and 72 and IV RAPS V | 2x20 3072 2010 and 2010 | 92.9 and 666 and VI RAPS | taught the scientists of India how to construct a Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR). The Canadians were to set up this reactor which was not constructed in Canada. Canadians did not have a proven design. They began their CANDU (Canada Deuterium Uranium) reactor of 200 MW sometime after 1959 in Douglas Point Ontario and was completed in 1968. Canadian began work on RAPS | in 1964. Thus both reactor were under construction between 1964 and 1968 - one in Canada, the other in India. Indians did not know the constructional work, the Canadians did not know the condition of working in India. Once again trial and error method was adopted. Many mishaps took place. The reactor was completed in 1973.It took 9 years to complete the work. What health wise impact mishaps make on nearby residents is never disclosed. The RAPS II project began in 1967. It was completed in 1980. It took 13 years to complete the work because several components were made in ‘India for the first time, Now Indian scientists became well versed in making PHWR reactors in India. Of the 21 reactors mentioned ea 18 are PHWR. ‘Though RAPS | began working in1973 it never worked smoothly. Only 8 years later in 1981 it was shut down for 4 years because it could not be repaired. Between 1985-1990 it was repaired several times but each time it failed. In 1992 it was started with lowered power of 100-MW. RAPS II worked better than RAPS | because it could be repaired due to knowledge gained over the years. The work on RAPS Ill and IV was undertaken in 1987. The Hindustan Construction Company did the civil works. It took 13 years to complete the work in 2000. In 2002, RAPS V and VI were approved by the Government. It took now 8 years to complete them in 2010. So far all the reactors of Rawatbhata were of 200 or 220 MW. In 2010, Government has approved to set up PHWR of 700 MW in Rawatbhata. These are labeled as RAPS VII and VIII.MADRAS ATOMIC POWER STATION [MAPS] This station is located in Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu. It is on a site near to sea shore. Some 16 km from the site are salt pans and fishing was the major source of livelihood for people residing there. The selection of the site was bad in all respects. ‘Again we do not know what happened to the residents of Kalpakkam. CAPITAL COST OF OPERATING REACTORS STATION | CAPACITY | ORIGINAL | REVISED | Commercial | Cumulative (MW) COST CcOsT Operation Load (Crores) | (Crores) | Commencement | Factor (%) MAPS | 1x20 62 119 1984 49.4 MAPS I | 1x220 Al 127 1986 55.2 MAPS | took 9 years to be functional. It is of the same design as RAPS | but the cooling system is different. Water has to come from Bay of Bangal. It needed a tunnel to drain water from the sea and this became a problem. The 80% components of MAPS were made in India and the Indian companies had their own problems. The delays were inevitable. MAPS II took 11 years to complete. After completion MAPS | and II did not function smoothly. In 1985, MAPS | had two major mishaps. These were due to vibrations in the turbine generators. The reactor was shut down. It took time to make it functional again. In 1987, MAPS | and II were shut down because blades of the turbine generator broke. These were replaced but it took time to repair. Due to some failure in proper functioning of MAPS | and I they had to be operated at lower power levels as in TAPS and RAPS. MAPS reactors were designed for 235 MW, but were running at 170 MW. It took more than 10 years to repair MAPS reactors, so that they could generate 220 MW in 2006.NARORA ATOMIC POWER STATION [NAPS] No sane man would select Narora for the Atomic Power Station. In the first place it is in seismic Zone IV. Number IV implys a higher and a more damaging earthquake. The question then is why such a site was selected ? The answer is very ‘complicated. Vikram Sarabhai, the Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission, came from an agricultural state of Gujarat. He knew the Oak Ridge industrial complexes using atomic energy. He sent some engineers to Oak Ridge to study this new field. Americans were happy to help Indians. In 1967 they sent a team of American experts to locate a suitable region. The team found the Gangetic plain to be suitable. Indians like foreign advice and they settled for the western Indo- Gangetic plain. And they ended up with Narora in Bulandshahr District of Uttar Pradesh. Narora proved to the be the worst location and we need not go into details. jea of setting up of agro- CAPITAL COST OF OPERATING REACTORS, ‘STATION | CAPACITY | ORIGINAL | REVISED | Commercial | Cumulative (ww) cost | cosT Operation Load (Crores) | (Crores) | Commencement | Factor (%) NAPST 2x220 210 745 | 1991 and 1992 | 51.8 and and It 55.4 The beginning of the Narora Project was troublesome. Unfortunately, 1974 nuclear weapon test in Rajasthan had taken place when Narora Project started. America and Canada withdrew the support. The Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. was to manufacture most of the components. Germany supplied the detailed design and specifications and. some important parts. Spain and Sweden also gave the necessary components. France and Switzerland undertook the quality control work. As usual the construction work was not smooth. Once massive concrete slabs fell from the ceiling on the top of some special drilling machine. The repair work took.two years. With such ups and downs, the NAPS | was completed in 1991 and the NAPS II in 1992. In short it took 17 years to make NAPS operational. Between 1974 and 1991, two famous nuclear reactor accidents took place in ‘America and Russia respectively. Now Indians knew the danger. They knew the name Chemobyl. They came forward for the first time to register their protest against the nuclear power. “The movement built up to the extent of mobilizing a group of fourteen Member of Parliament submitting a memorandum and to stay the commissioning of the reactor. But the reactor's commissioning went on even though itwas delayed.” The nuclear scientists of India claim that their power stations are safe. Is this true? On March 1993, the most serious nuclear reactor accident took place in Narora. Without going into details, it should be noted that India was lucky, that this accident remained a little short ofthe three famous foresaid accidents because a few workers risked their life to stop the functioning of the reactor somehow. KAKRAPAR ATOMIC POWER STATION [KAPS] Kakrapar is on the river Tapi in Gujarat, It is a low lying area and flooding takes place in monsoon. It is also in the seismic Zone. The number of people living in the area is also very high. It is obvicus that such a place is not suitable for an Atomic Power Station. Ukai Dam too is located on Tapi some 20 to 25 km up stream. The experts of Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) have disregarded all these factors, CAPITAL COSTS OF OPERATING REACTORS STATION | CAPACITY | ORIGINAL | REVISED | Commercial | Cumulative (mw) cost cost Operation —_| Load Factor (Crores) | (Crores) | Commencement (%) Kakrapar | 2x220 383 1367 | 1993 and 1995 | 58.1 and land Il mT‘The Kakrapar project was sanctioned in July 1981 and KAPS I was completed in 1993. Some special equipment to absorb earthquake shocks came from Europe ‘and Japan. This delayed the work. A further delay in completing the work was due to some fire in the switchgear room in 1991. The loss of Rs. 100 million was reported in a newspaper. KAPS | was commissioned without integrated testing of the Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS). People of Gujarat took out several opposition marches. The police firing was resorted to in one case. In any case, the reactor was commissioned. KAPS II began functioning in 1995. This shows that the construction of station took 12 to 14 years. In June 1994, water entered in the turbine room due to heavy rains in the region. The next day water entered in the reactor building too. The serious accident did not take place because the reactor was shut down for the past four months and was not working during the flooding. In 2004, the Autom: ‘System and the Automatic Liquid Poison Addition System of KAPS | failed. The reactor was shut down because the experts could not find the cause even though they searched for a month. KAPS II was functioning well. It seems so. Reactor Power Control KAIGA ATOMIC POWER STATION : Kaiga kaiga is in the North Kanara district of Karnataka. It is situated on the bank of river Kali. The region is in the Western Ghat and richly forested. We read: “It is about 40 km inland from the Arabian Sea where Kali debouches from deep gorges carved of the steep west bank of the Western Ghats. It is bounded by steep hills on three sides with closed canopy forest natured by heavy seasonal precipitation.” Wi thickens, raises a canopy, and diffuses the sunlight — in places even blocking it out completely — so that even in the afternoon, one feels one is already approaching twilight. Trees rise to a height of more than 60 feet. Underneath the dense growth in a kilometer up the road in the ghats the minor forest gradually prevents human access.” It is said that “Kaiga was perhaps the only reactor in the world to be situated in a tropical rain forest, rich in biodiversity.”For more than 25 years the AEC and the DAE went on destroying villagers’ home and their life. When their noise grew louder, they retreated into the silence of dense forest, where they began to destroy the rich biodiversity of Western Ghats. What a progress ! . CAPITAL COST OF OPERATING REACTORS STATION | CAPACITY | ORIGINAL | REVISED | Commercial | Cumulative (ww) cosT cost Operation Load (Crores) | (Crores) | Commencement | Factor (%) Kaiga | 2x20 731 2896 | 2000 and 2000 | 66.8 and and Il 67.4 Kaiga Ill | 2x220 9282 2007 and 2010 | 44.4 and and IV 70.5 The Kaiga project was the first to face the massive opposition from the people of Karnataka, A large number of individuals and all the prominent groups of Kannada gathered together to save their Western Ghat and its dense forest and rich biodiversity . “Local government bodies such as the Uttara Kannada Zilla Parishad and several Panchayats in Karwar Taluk passed resolution against Kaiga.” The case went up to the Supreme Court which was filed by the Samaj Parivartana Samudaya of Dharwad in 1990. The Chief Petitioner of the case was the famous Kannada writer K. Shivaram Karanth. In 1993, the Supreme Court forced DAE to show its Environmental Impact Assessment (EAl) report written by the National Environmental Enginnering Research Institute (NEERI) to one of the petitioner, Vishnu Kamath, in the Delhi office of DAE. This success was partially satisfying, but it was not enough to save the Ghat. For the sake of show, DAE organized a National Workshop on Nuclear Power at the Indian Institute of Science, Banglore, in 1988. Here public speakers defeated the DAE officials but the latter lacked courage to admit defeat. 10The Kaiga project began around 1988 and was completed in 2000 with usual delays and one serious accident. While constructing the building a ‘part of inner containment dome — the structure that is supposed to prevent the escape of radioactivity into the environment should an accident occur ~ of the first unit collapsed.” Huge 130 tonnes concrete slabs fell from a height of 40 meters. The dome was repaired then using the French specifications. In 1999, a fire too broke out in the repaired building. The Kaiga Ill and IV began in 2001 and Kaiga Ill was completed in 2007, and Kaiga IV in 2010. These power reactors being recent ones, | do not have any details. DAE wants to set up two more units of 700 MW in Kaiga. That is the latest news. Obviously the people are against these units. KOODANKULAM ATOMIC POWER STATION : Koodankulam Koodankulam is some 20 km from Kanyakumari. It.touches the Gulf of Mannar. This Gulf is rich in biodiversity. It contains endangered species like sea-cow and 6 varities of Indian Mangrove. The Atomic Power Station is going to destroy ‘one of the world richest marine biodiversity areas.’ The site was selected by DAE in 1980. Due to many political and non-political ups and downs, this site was saved from degeneration. The work on the site began in 2001. Itis Russia, that was bent on constructing power station in India. In 1988, an agreement was signed by Rajiv Gandhi and Mikhail Gorbachev for two Russian reactors to be constructed in Koodankulam. When the people of Tamil Nadu came to know about the agreement, some 10000 men and women came down to Kanyakumari to protest the accord. The police opened fire and dispersed them. At ‘that time the accord remained on the paper because the Soviet Union integrated in 1991 Due to some revised agreement between India and Russia, the work for the construction of Koodankulam | and Il began in 2001. Once again, in 2003, 7000 people of Tamil Nadu took out a rally to protest against the reactors. "1‘These protests continue to this date. It is reported that Koodankulam | is working since 2014. | have no information to write on that reactor, The Russian reactor is 1000 MW LWVR (i.e. 1000 million watts light water reactor). NUMBER OF REACTORS APPROVED : So far 21 reactors are already constructed at seven sites and we have described them above. The reactors that are coming up are as follows : RAPS VII and Vill in Rawatbhata KAPS Ill and IV in Kakrapar. Kaiga Vand VI in Kaiga Koodankulam II, Ill and IV in Koodankulam aoge This way there will be 30 reactors at the seven sites in future. NEW SITES LOCATED The new sites in which the future reactors can come up are : Kowada in Andhra Pradesh. Mithi - Virdi in Gujarat. Kumharia and Gorakhpur in Haryana. Bhimpur in Madhya Pradesh. Jaitapur in Maharastra Pati - Sonapur in Orissa Haripur in West Bengal. NOPe Ens The Chief Minister of Punjab clearly stated that he will not allow a nuclear reactor in his state. DAE is afraid of setting up a nuclear reactor in Kerala because of strong opposition from the people of Kerala. The Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamta Banerjee, has rejected the Haripur project, but has not ruled out nuclear power in her state, Russia ‘has refused to set its reactor in Haripur. Orissa is also not enthusiastic of setting nuclear reactor in Pati-Sonapur but its Government has not refused nuclear power in the state. Gujarat and Haryana are quick to offer sites to DAE 12‘The construction work in Jaitapur is going on since 2011. One protestor was killed in 2011, when police fired to disperse the crowd. ACCIDENTS We have already seen three serious accidents in the above write-up. These are Narora 1993, Kakrapar 1994 and Kaiga 1994 accidents. We see now a fourth one in Kalpakkam. It took place in 2003. In this station an Atomic Reprocessing Plant is situated. It produces redioactive waste. Some of this waste is stored in Waste Tank Farm (WTF). In 2003, 6 workers went there to collect a sample of low level waste. There, somehow a valve had failed. This failure was a serious accident. It released radioactivity of much higher level into WTF. And these six workers were exposed to high radiation doses. Are Atomic Power Stations safe ? HEALTH HAZARDS We know now that Atomic Power Stations are not safe. They are likely to release radioactive waste all round the establishment. This waste contains radioactive atoms. These radioactive atoms decay. They give up electrons. Then these decayed atoms are called ionized atoms or ions. The radiation released by radioactive waste is called ionizing radiation. The radioactive waste emits alpha particles (protons), beta-particles (electrons), gamma rays which are more powerful than the familiar X-rays, and neutrons. This way, there are four kinds of ionizing radiations. These ionizing radiations are dangerous for human beings. They damage human tissues. The damage due to radiation depends on the radiation dose and the rate of energy transfer. When a radioactive particle hits a cell of human body one of the four 1. The particles pass through the cell without any damage. 2. They damage the cell a litle but the cell is capable of recovery. The particles kill the cell and the human organ is damaged. The person becomes weak and ill. 134, The particles convert the original kind of cell into another kind of cell. This is called mutation. In the spoken language we say that the person suffers due to cancer. Diseases associated with acute radiation sickness are : vomiting, epilation, haemorthaje, (bloody) diarrhoea and necrotic gingivitis. OVERALL COMMENT In 2012, the total electricity generation capacity of India was 205 GW (GW = one billion watts). Of this only 4.78 GW is nuclear capacity. This is all India could do in 60 years. We have data about nuclear capacity but we do not know how much electricity is actually produced. We have seen that none of the reactors are working well. There are frequent shut downs. Hence, we cannot get a clear picture of the existing situation of nuclear power in India. The poor performance of India's reactors js recorded in the April 1995 issue of Nuclear Engineering International (NEI). It is written there ‘that the average life time load factor for Indian reactors was 36.08 percent, the lowest among the eighteen countries with four or more reactors. Four years later (NEI, 1999) this position was unchanged.” It is said that installed capacity of wind power in India has exceeded that of nuclear power, but the actual performance is much below the design capacity. Once again, we do not have a clear picture. 14REFERANCES : | have taken information and data from two books ff: THE POWER OF PROMISE M.V. RAMANA, VIKING, 2012 Bs REGAINING PARADISE, T. VIJAYENDRA, Publishing Collective, Cerana Foundation, Hyderabad, 2009 To authors, | am grateful and convey my many thanks.APPENDIX REACTORS : = As noted earlier in this write-up there are 21 or 22 working reactors in Indi Of these, 4 are Light Water Reactors (LWR) and 18 are Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR). What is LWR ? In this, the words Light Water contrast the words Heavy Water. Otherwise Light Water is nothing but purified ordinary water. There are two types of LWR. That is, in the market two categories of LWR are available. These are: Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) of Westinghouse of USA and Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) of General Electric of USA. Water boils at 100° centigrade. Water under pressure will boil at much higher degree centigrade. That will depend on pressure. Perhaps the design of PWR may cost more than that of BWR. India purchased LWR from General Electric of USA. Hence, TAPS | and II are LWR with BWR category. Koodankulam | and Il are also LWR but | do not have any details. TAPS | and Il are of 190 MW each whereas Koodankulam | and Il are of 1000 MW each. What is the function of water in a reactor ? It acts as moderator and coolant. Reactor produces neutrons of high speed. Water slows them down to moderate speed, hence it acts as moderator. ‘Since neutron speed is reduced in using water, the reactor needs enriched nuclear fuel. Uranium that is found in nature contains 99.3% of uranium 238 and 0.07% of uranium 235. The enriched uranium fuel contains about 3 to 5% of uranium 235. LWR requires low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. TAPS | and II and Koodankulam | and II use low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. In short, Indian LWR reactors use LEU fuel and ordinary purified water as moderator and coolant. What.is PHWR ? It is a reactor that uses Heavy Water as moderator and coolant and uses uranium that is found in nature. Heavy water is costly. Hence, it is not allowed to become steam and escape. To achieve this, Heavy Water is kept under pressure. The reactor is called Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor. 16What is Heavy Water ? Chemical formula for water is H20. H, Hydrogen contains a proton and an electron and its atomic weight is 1. 0 is oxygen and its atomic weight is 16. Hence the atomic weight of HO is 18. Chemical formula for Heavy Water is D2. D, Deuterium has a proton plus a neutron and an electron. Like Proton, neutron’s atomic weight is |. Hence the atomic weight of D0 is 20. This makes DzO heavier than HO. Hence D,0 is called Heavy Water. Indian PHWR are of Canadian design. The Canadian Reactor is called CANDU (for CANada Deuterium Uranium) reactor. Of the 18 PHWR of India, 2 PHWR (TAPS III and IV) are of 540 MW each. The 14 PHWR are 220 MW each The remaining 2 PHWR (RAPS | and I!) are of 200 MW each. What is a reactor ? How it functions ? It functions because of nuclear fission that takes place in a specific part of the reactor under specific condition. What is nuclear fission ? When a neutron hits an atom of the heavy element like uranium. 236, it splits the said atom into two or more atoms of lighter elements. This is called nuclear fission, and it releases considerable energy and two or more neutrons. ‘These released neutrons are fast neutrons. They are slowed down by moderator like water or graphite. These slowed neutrons repeat the nuclear fission . If this happens then it is called chain reaction. The slowed down neutron are called thermal neutrons and the associated reactors thermal reactors. To start a chain reaction and sustain it in a reactor, one needs to put a certain ‘amount of fissionable fuel in the reactor. This amount is called critical mass. Then the reactor is said to have become critical or to have reached the criticality. The part of the reactor in which fuel is kept is callled the core of the reactor. The nuclear fission is shown on the next page diagrammatically 7Neutron FISSION PRODUCT =FP Hl WATER oR GRAPHITE. sigw Show Neyfron FP. FP FISSION PRODUCT Moderator, Water or Graphite, Slows down but does not absorb neutrons. 18There are in all 435 reactors of various designs in the world. Of these, only two are Fast Breeder Reactors (FBR). One FBR is in France, the other FBR, Monju, in Japan. In France, its FBR (Superphenix) has proved to be very troublesome and it was shut down for ever after eleven years of existence. * The Indian dream is to build many FBR in India. It started with Fast Breeder Test Reactor FBTR of 40 MWt/13.2 MWe. MWt means total MW and MWe means. how much electricity will be produced from total MW. This reactor was planned around 1971. It became critical in 1985. In 2002 it reached 17.4 MWt. In 1997, it fed the grid 0.5 MWe, Its original cost was Rs. 348.5 million, Its revised cost was Rs. 919.8 million. What a fantastic record ! In 2004, the constructional work on prototype FBR or PFBR began. In 2012, it had not become critical. | do not know what is the position today. This record shows that the AEC and the DAE are playing with nuclear reactors as if they are wonderful toys which will one day make India rich. To conclude, we note: France, that was foremost in the fast breeder technology, has suspended its breeder program for the time being. USA, UK and Germany have canceled their breeder program fully. In the world, during the period 2010 to 2012, nuclear generation of electricity was reduced by 4.3 percent. This means that in the world, a total of 21 reactors were decommissioned. Among these, 10 were in Japan, 8 were in Germany and one was in UK. This is the world trend, Indians have to ponder what they want to do. 19