Introduction

Nuclear power is the fourth-largest source of electricity in India after thermal, hydroelectric and
renewable sources of electricity. As of 2010, India has 20 nuclear reactors in operation in six
nuclear power plants, generating 4,780 MW, while 5 other plants are under construction and are
expected to generate an additional 2,720 MW
India's nuclear power industry is undergoing rapid expansion with plans to increase nuclear
power output to 64,000 MW by 2032. (4.2 - 9%)

Nuclear power accidents

In India, there have been at least 6 (civilian and military) recorded nuclear power plant accidents
from 1987 to 2011
Globally, there have been at least 57 recorded nuclear power plant accidents since 1986

The three significant accidents in the 50-year history of civil nuclear power generation are:

• Three Mile Island (USA 1979) where the reactor was severely damaged but radiation
was contained and there were no adverse health or environmental consequences
• Chernobyl (Ukraine 1986) where the destruction of the reactor by steam explosion and
fire killed 31 people and had significant health and environmental consequences. The
death toll has since increased to about 5
• Fukushima (Japan 2011) where three old reactors (and possibly a fourth) were written
off but the effects of loss of cooling due to a huge tsunami were largely contained.

How in Japan?????????

At the time of the quake, reactor 4 had been de-fueled while 5 and 6 were in cold shutdown for
planned maintenance. The remaining reactors shut down automatically after the earthquake, with
emergency generators starting up to run the control electronics and water pumps needed to cool
reactors. The plant was protected by a seawall designed to withstand a 5.7 m (19 ft) tsunami but
not the 14 m (46 ft) maximum wave which arrived 41–60 minutes after the earthquake. The
entire plant was flooded, including low-lying generators and electrical switchgear in reactor
basements and external pumps for supplying cooling seawater. The connection to the electrical
grid was broken. All power for cooling was lost and reactors started to overheat, due to natural
decay of the fission products created before shutdown. The flooding and earthquake damage
hindered external assistance.
Evidence soon arose of partial core meltdown in reactors 1, 2, and 3; hydrogen explosions
destroyed the upper cladding of the buildings housing reactors 1, 3, and 4; an explosion
damaged the containment inside reactor 2; multiple fires broke out at reactor 4. Despite being
initially shutdown, reactors 5 and 6 began to overheat. Fuel rods stored in pools in each reactor
building began to overheat as water levels in the pools dropped. Fears of radiation leaks led to a
20 km radius evacuation around the plant while workers suffered radiation exposure and were
temporarily evacuated at various times. One generator at unit 6 was restarted on 17 March
allowing some cooling at units 5 and 6 which were least damaged. Grid power was restored to
parts of the plant on 20 March, but machinery for reactors 1 through 4, damaged by floods, fires
and explosions, remained inoperable. Flooding with radioactive water through the basements of
units 1-4 continues to prevent access to carry out repairs
Following the Fukushima disaster, many are questioning the mass roll-out of new plants in
India??????????????????

Nuclear safety

Nuclear safety covers the actions taken to prevent nuclear and radiation accidents or to limit
their consequences. This covers nuclear power plants as well as all other nuclear facilities. (The
transportation of nuclear materials, and the use and storage of nuclear materials for medical,
power, industry, and military uses)

The three primary objectives of nuclear safety systems as defined by the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission are to
1. Shut down the reactor,
2. Maintain it in a shutdown condition, and
3. Prevent the release of radioactive material during events and accidents

To achieve optimum safety using a 'defence-in-depth' approach, with multiple safety systems.
Key aspects of the approach are:
• high-quality design & construction,
• equipment which prevents operational disturbances or human failures and errors
developing into problems,
• comprehensive monitoring and regular testing to detect equipment or operator failures,
• redundant and diverse systems to control damage to the fuel and prevent significant
radioactive releases,
• Provision to confine the effects of severe fuel damage (or any other problem) to the plant
itself.

The scope of assessment will take into account the issues that have been directly highlighted by
the events in Fukushima and the possibility for combination of initiating events. The following
situations will be envisaged:
1. Earthquake exceeding the design basis
2. Flooding exceeding the design basis
3. Other extreme external conditions challenging the specific site leading to loss of safety
functions
4. Prolonged total loss of electrical power
5. Prolonged loss of the ultimate heat sink.Accident management issues
6. Core melt accident, including consequential effects such as hydrogen accumulation
7. Degraded conditions in the spent fuel storage, including consequential effects such as the
loss of radiation shielding.
(The power plant survived the earthquake and was shut down. Limits are set on the levels of
velocity, acceleration and displacement in every power plant. The plant stopped functioning
when the limits exceeded. Atomic reaction thus stopped. When the plant stopped functioning,
sea water used to cool the reactor stopped flowing. The diesel generators that were to feed water
to the power plant also apparently shut down. Thus, the cores began to heat up.
Though the fission of radioactive elements was stopped, some reactions continued generating a
great deal of heat. Without cooling, the temperature rose, boiling off the remaining water and
increasing pressure leading to explosion).