<p>“Every country will try to move cautiously after the Fukushima incident. If we have to maintain a high growth rate, we need power. While we cannot say that we can do without nuclear power, we also cannot dismiss the incident which occurred in Japan. We need to move forward with caution,” said Srinivasan during his talk at the The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) here on Tuesday. “We have followed a policy of not setting up a nuclear power plant in areas that come under zones four and five of earthquake intensity. All nuclear plants in the country are located in zone two and three. The only exception is the Narora nuclear power plant which is in zone four,” he noted.<br /><br />On the coastal front, with three sites being in the danger zone across the country namely, Kalpakkam, Tarapur and Kundakulam, Srinivasan said all the plants had a series of safety nets in place for facing a tsunami. <br /><br />“During the 2004 tsunami which struck the coastal area of the country, Kalpakkam also was hit. But none of the reactors were affected. We had the backup diesel generators at a higher altitude and meet any eventuality,” he said. <br /><br />Srinivasan said all the three coastal nuclear power plants are being insulated from risks of a tsunami by planting trees along the coastline and fortifying them from high tidal waves.<br /><br />To a question on the Prime Minister’s statement that the “Nuclear programme needs to be much more transparent”, Srinivasan said: “Nobody in the entire world will open up to reveal information related to nuclear tests. There cannot be any transparency on nuclear weaponry.”</p>
<p>“Every country will try to move cautiously after the Fukushima incident. If we have to maintain a high growth rate, we need power. While we cannot say that we can do without nuclear power, we also cannot dismiss the incident which occurred in Japan. We need to move forward with caution,” said Srinivasan during his talk at the The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) here on Tuesday. “We have followed a policy of not setting up a nuclear power plant in areas that come under zones four and five of earthquake intensity. All nuclear plants in the country are located in zone two and three. The only exception is the Narora nuclear power plant which is in zone four,” he noted.<br /><br />On the coastal front, with three sites being in the danger zone across the country namely, Kalpakkam, Tarapur and Kundakulam, Srinivasan said all the plants had a series of safety nets in place for facing a tsunami. <br /><br />“During the 2004 tsunami which struck the coastal area of the country, Kalpakkam also was hit. But none of the reactors were affected. We had the backup diesel generators at a higher altitude and meet any eventuality,” he said. <br /><br />Srinivasan said all the three coastal nuclear power plants are being insulated from risks of a tsunami by planting trees along the coastline and fortifying them from high tidal waves.<br /><br />To a question on the Prime Minister’s statement that the “Nuclear programme needs to be much more transparent”, Srinivasan said: “Nobody in the entire world will open up to reveal information related to nuclear tests. There cannot be any transparency on nuclear weaponry.”</p>
