{"id":2299,"date":"2016-03-15T09:56:49","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T09:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/?p=2299"},"modified":"2021-12-01T12:37:10","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T12:37:10","slug":"72-hours-and-counting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/story\/2299\/72-hours-and-counting\/","title":{"rendered":"72 Hours And Counting!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greenpeace calls for an immediate investigation into India\u2019s aging heavy water reactors post Kakrapar accident<\/h3>\n

Following a serious accident at the Kakrapar Atomic Power Station in Gujarat on March 11, Greenpeace India has called for an immediate investigation by independent experts, of all aging pressurised heavy water reactors (PWHR) in the country.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following a serious accident at the Kakrapar Atomic Power Station in Gujarat on March 11,\u00a0Greenpeace India has called for an immediate investigation by independent experts, of all aging pressurised heavy water reactors (PWHR) in the country.\u00a0The demand for investigation comes as the Indian nuclear regulator failed to identify the leak within 72 hours of the\u00a0accident<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Kakrapar accident was likely caused by degrading components and we\u2019re concerned similar aging effects could cause accidents at other aging heavy water reactors. \u00a0We need independent expert investigation into the Kakrapar accident and the immediate inspection of all other aging heavy water reactors,\u201d said Hozefa Merchant, Greenpeace Campaigner.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the fifth anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, a major leak from the reactor\u2019s cooling system was detected and an emergency was declared at Unit 1 of the Kakrapar Atomic Power Station. \u00a0Although the reactor was shut down, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has stated that the\u00a0leak is significant enough to be considered a level 1 accident on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Kakrapar unit 1, a pressurised heavy water reactor based on CANDU (CANada Deuterium Uranium) design, is over twenty years old. There are another seven similar reactors in India of the same design that are over 20 years old. Any mishap in these reactors could endanger the lives of over 4 million people living around a 30 km-radius around these eight reactors\u00a0[1]<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

The risk of accidents increases with age in CANDU reactors, with the inevitable degradation of hundreds of pipes that hold the fuel and transport heavy water. Due to increasing accident risks, CANDU reactors typically need to be shut down and \u201ccompletely retubed\u201d after about 25 years of operation in order to continue operating safely.<\/p>\n

In a statement on the Kakrapar accident released yesterday<\/a>, the AERB said that only the reactor\u2019s \u201cpressure tubes\u201d, which hold the fuel bundles, were replaced in 2011, but that it is unclear whether all safety-sensitive aging components were replaced. \u201cNeither Kakrapar\u2019s operator, nor the regulator, have disclosed exactly what components or tubing failed and caused the leak. This is why an investigation into the causes of the Kakrapar accident and the condition of India\u2019s other aging reactors is urgently needed,\u201d says Merchant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe emergency at Kakrapar reminds us that all of India\u2019s heavy water reactors are aging and more prone to accidents. The impacts of aging are not entirely well understood, so it is vital to adopt a precautionary approach to protect public safety,\u201d added Shawn-Patrick Stensil, a Greenpeace Canada campaigner with expert understanding of the Canadian CANDU reactor design. \u201cAll of the heavy water reactors over twenty years of age should be immediately inspected so we can ensure what happened at Kakrapar doesn\u2019t happen at another station. \u00a0All inspection results should be made public and subject to independent review,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Eight of the current 18 PHWRs in India are of the CANDU design, and are over the age of 20 years. The four of the oldest reactors are located in Rawatbhata in Rajasthan and Chennai in Tamil Nadu. The total population from these eight sites that live within the 30km radius is over 4.16 million people. The population within the 30km radius around Kakrapar is close to a million people.\u00a0[2]<\/sup><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

1- Reactor information gathered from NPCIL website<\/p>\n

2- Population gathered from census 2011<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n \t\t\t

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Greenpeace calls for an immediate investigation into India\u2019s aging heavy water reactors post Kakrapar accident Following a serious accident at the Kakrapar Atomic Power Station in Gujarat on March 11,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":1435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"p4-page-type":[16],"class_list":["post-2299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clean-energy","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2299"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12325,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299\/revisions\/12325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2299"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/india\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=2299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}