How safe are Indian Nuke Reactors

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Kaleen Bhaiya

Kaleen Bhaiya

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The title name says it all!!!Given the spate of the japanese nuke reactors after tsunami and EQ... What would be the state of our country and more importantly our people, whom the govt cares little, if case of such a devastation strikes India.

People who oppose(READ "Need Clarification") are driven away by politicians(Jaitapur scene) from places where they raise their voices. I aint against Nuke energy but our past records dont look promising either when it comes to compensation and the after beneficiaries (Bhopal scenario and govt saving the perpetrator's #ss ).

No matter how hard Mr. Kakodkar (and NPC)tries to prove that all our reactors are safe, records of Radiation leaks in delhi ( from old containers 1-1.5 years ago) dosent seem convincing that we really are safe.

Your views on this Techies!!!
 
This is what i fore see - a bunch of politicians from congress setup a commission to study how safe the reactors are - they ask for money - centre grants the amount - they roam around in exotic locales around the world saying that they are on a study trip - then come back and say our reactors are unsafe - repeat kalmadi's scam^2 (raised to 2)
 
Guys, Can someone please explain in plain english whats the difference between a nuke bomb like the one dropped on japan and a nuclear meltdown of the core which happened in chernobyl. I know that a nuke bomb is where the fission goes on uncontrolled whereas in a nuke reactor the process in controlled and the heat energy is harnessed to generate steam and thereby power. I do have few more questions which are bugging my mind since the quake and the meltdown scenario. Please let me ask them here as I dont want to rummage through pages of internet material :P

Here I go ..

1. The above question difference between the meltdown v/s bomb.

2. Lets say the cooling process is halted.Then it will result in a meltdown.Right? So when will this heat stop? If that spewed nuclear material cannot be scooped up coz of the radiation thing, then how do they insert the material in the first place without any radiation problems..

3. I read sometime back that the other reactors in chernobyl were active until '93 when they got decommissioned. So how did they manage to get the nuclear material out ? Did they just enclosed the damn thing with more concrete and let it just be there ?
 
^^

The difference between a nuke and a reactor are as follows --

1) As you said in a nuke the fission keeps on going uncontrolled or is harnessed to daisy chain into a Fusion reaction (Hyrogen bombs -- not the diwali specials), while in a nuclear reactor Control Rods and Coolant liquid keeps the reaction and tempratures within limit to prevent the system going nuke.

2) Generally if cooling process is halted there are secondary systems that kick in to prevent mishaps but unfortunately this system was shutdown for the duration of the Chernobyl Test -- which quickly morphed to Chernobyl disaster due to inexperience and faliure of critical systems on that day. --

3) The disposal of Nuclear waste and insertion of nuclear fuel rods into the system and out of the system is a fully automatic process under human supervision.

4) The other 3 reactors in the Chernobyl Power Plant were online till 1993 due to several economic factors involved at that time and due to the overriding relation of Ukraine and Russia at that time,
a) Ukraine did not have the know how to contol those reactors.
b) At the end of the fuel cycle(when fuel has to be loaded or removed from reactor) for the three remaining reactors they were decommisioned and since then a cordon area has been made across known as the Buffer Zone (the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. comes from this where it becomes exclusion zone)
c) The Chernobyl reactor till the time served provided much of the electricity to Kiev and other important cities of Ukraine.

Some links that will explain in depth --

HowStuffWorks "How Nuclear Bombs Work" -- HOW A NUKE WORKS
HowStuffWorks "How Nuclear Power Works" -- HOW A REACTOR WORKS
HowStuffWorks "How Nuclear Radiation Works" -- HOW RADIATION WORKS
HowStuffWorks "Reconsidering Nuclear Power" -- HOW Waste is disposed

Chernobyl disaster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -- all to do with Chernobyl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:_Shadow_of_Chernobylhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:_Shadow_of_Chernobyl -- The game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. which takes the 1986 Chernobyl accident at its base.
Nuclear reactor technology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -- Nuclear technology.

Hope this helps bruv :).
 
Thanks alpha17 and pappu .. for the links and info.

Since yesterday I am reading this stuff intermittently trying to grasp the practical part of the whole process.

I am reading the material as I write this but I have a quick question. The nuclear material uranium bundles (pellets stacked). When they are transported,moved around, do they emit radiation. I suppose yes, because they are decaying.So the workers who work in a nuclear plant should sustain radiation on a daily basis, shouldn't they ?

So a nuclear bomb is specifically designed so that the chain reaction/fission occurs of maximum material in the least amount of time.And to generate that much heat, a particular amount of mass is also needed.Correct me if wrong.And in a reactor the whole process is just controlled.

In the reactor,that hot nuclear stuff if let not to cool, then what will happen ? Will it cool down over time by itself ?

Ok .... back to those articles :P
 
That nuclear reactor in Japan was safe as it could be. Imgine being hit by an earthquake on a magnitude of 9, followed by a Tsunami, followed by an explosion of pent of hydrogen gas, and yet it was being contained for so long. If any such protocols have been followed in India, it will be many an old age before something like this happens here which is not man made.
 
^^

They are still trying. All 6 core seem to have some type of problem.

God be with Japan.
 
Seems they are finding it really hard to control.

Japan's nuclear regulators raised the severity level of the crisis at a stricken nuclear plant on Tuesday to rank it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

An official with the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan, speaking on national television, said the rating was being raised from 5 to 7 -- the highest level on the international scale.

The official, who was not named, said the amount of radiation leaking from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant was around 10 percent of the Chernobyl accident.
Click to expand...

Source: Japan raises nuclear crisis level to 7; worst on global scale, at par with Chernobyl
 
if a 40ft tsunami wave hit any of india's shoreline cities like Mumbai, forget about nuclear disaster, there wont be any city left. Thousands will be washed away in few minutes since in a tsunami the water (which might be as high as 2-3 storey building) travels at speed of a jumbo jet. Just imagine such amount of water pressure loaded with debris hitting a building.
There are more things dangerous than a nuclear meltdown i.e mother nature and the earth itself. live with it.
 
Tejas01 said:
The title name says it all!!!Given the spate of the japanese nuke reactors after tsunami and EQ... What would be the state of our country and more importantly our people, whom the govt cares little, if case of such a devastation strikes India.
Click to expand...
Well, if we get hit by an earthquake & a tsunami then we'll be just as screwed.

So your title basically asks how safe are indian reactors to earthquakes & tsunami isn't it.

Would you have even cared if there was no such incident in Japan ? Telling isn't it.

Course not. We do not live near the ring of fire anyway.

That means they are already safe, could they be made safer, sure.

If you recall the major argument over the nuke deal back in 2007, was that it affected the soverignty of the country, nobody was talking or cared about dangerous nuke leaks.

Tejas01 said:
No matter how hard Mr. Kakodkar (and NPC)tries to prove that all our reactors are safe, records of Radiation leaks in delhi ( from old containers 1-1.5 years ago) dosent seem convincing that we really are safe.
Click to expand...
How much radiation leaked out ? thats the point.

Don't fall for ppl that want to live in a zero radiation world. Its false to say zero radiation is safe and anything above isn't. There's degrees as always. Without any nuke power we do not live in such a world anyway. There is always background radiation. The resistance to nuclear power in this country is 1%, after Japan it will be 2%. I for one am not worried that nuclear power adoption in this country will be affected much.

Facts only whisper but fear screams.
 
There are something we should know about Indian Reactors, and that of fukushima, and why a fukushima wouldn't happen in India. Fukushima has 6 Reactors in total, of which 5 run on low enriched uranium (LEU) and one runs on a Plutonium based reactor. What I'm trying to say is that, what is happening in Japan is actually minuscule, partly due to the fuel they use, and partly due to the better design on the plant , than Indian ones.

Indian Nuclear Power Plants: run on highly enriched PLUTONIUM, which is faar more radioactive and more difficult to contain in case of a very spontaneous chain reaction, the control rods in BARC, Trombay are atleast, atleast 52 years old, and there hasn't been a review of that so far, Incase trombay does blowup, you will have 3 or maybe even 4 times of what's happening in fukushima, those old Russian and Canadian reactors (now retired) and doing their time in BARC for studies, pose a bigger threat that the new ones.

And the Genius scientists from the Department of Atomic Energy, are thinking of getting their hands dirty by building a Nuclear plant in a seismically active area Jaitapore, what's happening to the scientists ? All of them need another Indira Gandhi to be reformed, Mr.Singh is mad, he continues building the plant there, You can be assured of another fukushima.

-Even Rajini saar cant really pitch in then :O
 
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