The mad global nuclear rush- Giddy speed, zero preparation by admin_dianuke

Dr. E A S Sarma

Former Union Power Secretary,
Government of India

"Of course it is just like the Great Leap Forward," Professor He Zuoxiu, one of China's leading theoretical physicists, who worked on the country's atomic bomb project, said. "It's all about giddy speed and zero preparation. We have not solved the problems of technology, cost or safety but rashly rushed out an over-ambitious plan. I think it is a mission impossible."

Indeed, China is rushing headlong into a dangerous nuclear future, initially allocating $120 billion to set up more than 50 nuclear power stations and increase its nuclear capacity from 9GW to 200 GW by 2020 and planning further to increase the capacity to 400 GW within the next couple of decades. On similar lines, India, which is struggling to find enough resources to feed more than sixty million below-the-poverty-line families, plans to commit a huge open-ended investment to add 55 GW to its existing 5 GW by 2031-32. South Korea too plans to join this bandwagon by adding around 10 GW to its existing capacity of 18.7 GW. By any stretch of imagination, this is a mind boggling situation.

IAEA's Nuclear Safety Review (2010) made the following ominous statement well before the Fukushima disaster in March, 2011.

“Several countries expanded their current nuclear power programmes. In the Agency’s latest projections for nuclear power, the low projection foresaw an installed global nuclear power capacity of about 546 GW(e) in 2030, a 46% increase over the roughly 375 GW(e) currently installed. The high projection foresaw about 803 GW(e), which is more than double the current capacity, and therefore poses a significant safety challenge to the world nuclear community. In addition, plans for some new nuclear power programmes are moving faster than the establishment of the necessary safety infrastructure and capacity.