Anti-nuke activists oppose PFBR as scientists highlight safety mechanism

Chennai:Is the 500 Mega Watt Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) inKalpakkam, considered to be an important milestone for India'sthree-stage nuclear power programme, too expensive for the country?
While anti-nuclear activists have termed the Rs 4,400 crore reactor astoo costly and waste of money, nuclear scientists have defended itstating that the cost of the reactor is due to it being a newtechnology as well as research and development put into developing it.
M V Ramana, a physicist at the Nuclear Futures Laboratory, PrincetonUniversity, has hit out the fast breeder reactor being developed inIndia as well as prototype fast breeder rector, terming it as waste ofmoney. He added that Department of Atomic Energy’s promise of nuclearpower has never materialised.
“The breeder reactor is too expensive. PFBR was to generate 500 MW ofpower, but in reality nobody knows how much power it will generate,”Ramana told a State-level convention on nuclear energy organised byPeople’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) here on Saturday
 He also raised the issue of safety, saying that the fast breederreactor core has chance of getting deformed due to fast neutronsproduced during the reaction. “The result is more and more fissilereaction, equal to 100 kg of TNT. Such an accident is possible in fastbreeder reactor,” warned Ramana.
When Express queried, Chairman and managing director of BharatiyaNabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (BHAVINI), Perumal Chellapandi who isalso currently spearheading the design of two more Fast BreederReactors, said that the reactor has safety mechanism in the unlikelyevent of the core of the reactor gets deformed.
The indigenously designed reactor will shut down automatically ifthere was a change in its core, he said. “We also have a mechanismcalled Doppler Effect which is applied to provide reactivity controlin fast neutron reactors. This has been tested by the United Statesduring Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor (SEFOR),” saidChellapandi.
 Chellapandi said that the technology is new and India is a pioneer.The evaluation of fast breeder reactor is only on paper. He citedexamples of how other reactors failed as they took inspiration fromthermal reactors.
To a query on the delay in commissioning the reactor whose deadlinewas 2010, Chellapandi said that the process is slow as the effort isgoing on to convince the public as well as Atomic Energy RegulatoryBoard. “We are taking careful steps to make the reactor,” he added
Meanwhile, SP Udayakumar of the PMANE was sceptical of report thatKudankulam nuclear plant has started generating power on Saturday.“The reactor was not able to restart for the last seven months. We aresceptical about its functioning,” he said. The reactor should have runfor couple of years as per design but AERB has given permission foronly six months, he claimed.
Former bureaucrat and Managing Trustee of Citizens Alliance forSustainable Living, M G Devasahayam said that the Kudunkulam plant hasbeen closed for 242 days of the 395 days. “It has been functional foronly 65 days and generated only minimal power,” he added.