The Hindu : New Delhi News : Nuclear waste burial site ruled out

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 28, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Nuclear waste burial site ruled out

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, JULY 27 . The Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Anil Kakodkar, today ruled out any immediate need for establishing a nuclear waste burial site in the country. There had been some studies conducted on suitable sites in various parts of the country some time ago but they have since been discontinued, he informed. "Finding such repositories is not an urgent need for us now," he said.

"Our nuclear programme is very small and the waste generated is very little," Dr.Kakodkar said talking to mediapersons here. "Even the U.S., which has a much longer history of nuclear programme and 1 lakh MW production, thought about it only recently," he said. "It is true that we carried out studies in this regard in different parts of the country including the Rajasthan desert. We were studying the quality of the rocks," he said.

Dr. Kakodkar, who is also the Secretary of the Central Department of Atomic Energy, was here to inaugurate a new office-cum-lab complex of the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration & Research.

The DAE did not decide on any nuclear waste dump site as it was not exactly looking for one immediately. "The studies were carried out with the idea that as and when we need it we can choose the best location. Now we have discontinued the studies," Dr.Kakodkar informed referring to the media interest the programme had elicited. "We will take the local public into confidence when we decide on the site," he said.

Talking about nuclear safety, Dr.Kakodkar said every precaution was being taken to keep the radiation levels within the permissible limits in and around the nuclear plants. "After Chernobyl we carried out several drills. The technology we are using is new. The radiation levels reported outside the plants are no higher than in the natural surroundings elsewhere."

"The radiation levels in some places--like the monozite belt in Kerala--are higher in the natural surroundings due to the emission from thorium," Dr.Kakodkar noted. He ruled out any radiation hazards in the vicinity of the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station, Rawatbhata. The recent reports from Tarapore too were blown up as a few staff members got "slightly overexposed", he said.

Dr.Kakodkar said the target before the nation was to create a nuclear power generation capacity of 20,000 MW by 2020. By then the total share of nuclear power would rise to 8-9 per cent of the country's generation capacity against the present slightly more than 3 per cent, he said. At present work is in progress on nine new nuclear power units.

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