The Hindu : Karnataka News : ‘Kaiga nuclear power plant can withstand earthquakes'

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Tuesday, Mar 15, 2011
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Karnataka

Karnataka

‘Kaiga nuclear power plant can withstand earthquakes'

Correspondent

ALLAYING FEARS:H.N. Bhat and Jagadeesh Velluri, Project Directors, and Jugal Kishor, Chief PRO, addressing a press meet in Karwar on Monday.

Karwar: The atomic power station at Kaiga is safe and can withstand earthquakes, according to G.P. Gupta, site director of Kaiga nuclear power station. Addressing a press meet at Kaiga on Monday, Mr. Gupta gave details of the security systems and the precautionary measures taken in Kaiga to avoid any mishap in case of earthquakes and tsunami in the region.

He said that there were two fast acting, independent and diverse shutdown systems in the Kaiga plant. He said that there will be no threat in the event of a tsunami to the Kaiga plant because it is situated about 55 km away from sea. The region has no history of earthquake in last 150 years.

There is no chance of radiation from the nuclear plants because they are built to sustain high seismic vibrations, he said. In case of an earthquake or floods the reactors will shut down automatically, Mr. Gupta said. He said that there is a safety measure committee under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner of Uttara Kannada and it conducts mock exercises every for two years to check the preparedness of different departments in case of an emergency. The mock drill is being conducted in Karwar taluk every two years jointly by the district administration and NPCL authorities. The police, health, revenue, fire and other departments check their capability to meet an emergency, shifting of people from surrounding villages etc., during every mock drill.

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