Japan’s desperate efforts to prevent a nuclear catastrophe have sent a strong message to many parts of Asia, especially India: if Japan can’t manage nuclear power safely, who can?
And the jitters in India are starting to raise concerns in Canada, which has positioned itself as a key player in India’s nuclear ambitions.
Currently there are 22 nuclear reactors in India which supply 2.5% of the nation’s electricity. India’s aim is to have 25 percent of that supply from nuclear reactors by 2050.
While governments across Asia are reassessing their own nuclear power ambitions, India said its nuclear march will continue unabated but with additional safeguards learnt from the fallout in Japan.
India needs to learn appropriate lessons from the nuclear disaster in Japan and take additional safeguards, but the country cannot abandon its nuclear energy programme, said the Indian Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh.
It was still too early to say what will be the impact of the Japanese disaster on India’s nuclear programme, Ramesh told reporters.
The minister said the Nuclear Power Corporation and Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) have to conduct safety reviews.
“They will have to learn appropriate lessons from what happened in Japan. They will be in touch with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” Ramesh said.
The minister pointed out that nuclear energy contributes three percent of the country’s power supply and its objective is to double this to six percent by 2020 and 13 percent by 2030.
The assumption that the problem of pollution of inland water bodies can be solved by shifting all power plants and refineries to the coast can no longer be taken for granted in the wake of the 2004 tsunami and the recent disaster in Japan, the minister said.
He added: “In the wake of what we have seen in the last few days in the most orderly, disciplined, technologically advanced country like Japan, imagine how it will be if it happens in an open, democratic and wonderfully disorganised country like ours?”
Elsewhere in Asia, the reaction to events in Japan has been mixed.
China has changed its tune, after initially claiming Japan’s misfortune would have no impact on its own plans for nuclear plants generating 86 gigawatts by 2020 - 5 per cent of the total electricity supply.
Beijing has suspended approval of new nuclear power projects, pending safety evaluations and changes to regulations.
It is still unclear whether the 25 reactors currently under construction would be affected by the safety review. One plant is only 100 kilometres from Wuhan, one of China’s biggest cities.
Hanoi, which has approved eight nuclear facilities to be built in central Vietnam by 2030 with a total output of 16,000 megawatts, has given no indication of changing its plans.
In Indonesia, a coalition of non-governmental organizations and scientists expressed its concern that the best safety measures might not able to contain a worst-case scenario.
Indonesia has proposed Bangka island off the coast of Sumatra island as a site for possible nuclear plants, with four reactors, to be built by 2025.
The prime minister of Thailand, which has plans for five reactors by 2020-2025, has ordered a review of its nuclear ambitions. Thailand had just entered the first phase of it nuclear power project with an information dissemination campaign.
No South-East Asian country operates any nuclear power plants. Several countries are harbouring plans in that direction, and mounting campaigns to win over their often sceptical citizens. Japan’s melting nuclear plants will probably not help.
Malaysia’s plans to build a 2-gigawatt nuclear power station by 2021 are also likely to meet political opposition.
Neither Singapore nor the Philippines are considering nuclear power.
‘There is a concern on safety issues and this is made emphatic and dramatic by the incident right now in Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactor,’ Philippine presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.
Meanwhile, some 100,000 people marched in Taiwan last Sunday to demand the government halt the construction of a fourth nuclear power plant, in the wake of the disaster in Japan.
Taiwan has three nuclear power plants with a total of six reactors. The fourth nuclear power plant is now 90 per cent completed and is due to go into operation at the end of 2012.
Canada’s beleaguered nuclear industry is hoping for a boost with India’s nuclear revival.
As both nation’s resume nuclear ties after 36 years, Indian companies discussed MoUs with their Canadian counterparts in Ottawa last month at the Nuclear Industry Conference and Trade Show.
The annual three-day trade show was organized by the Canadian Nuclear Association, a representative body of Canadian nuclear companies.
An Indian delegation led by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) associate director F Vohra also included representatives from L&T Infotech, DM Corporation and Avasarala Technologies Ltd.
‘We have started discussions to formalize two or three memorandums of understanding. We met many Canadian companies to discuss joint ventures in India. We offered to become their vendors in the burgeoning nuclear energy market in India,’’ Vijay Joshi, director of Kolhapur-based DM Corporation, told IANS.
As India plans to raise its nuclear power capacity from 7000 MW currently to 63,000MW by 2032, Joshi said, ‘Canadian companies have a huge opportunity to bid jointly with India companies for tenders. It is a business worth billions of dollars.”
The Indian representative said, ‘With it thrust on developing an indigenous nuclear energy programme, India insists on 60 percent indigenous component in nuclear power plants. So all these countries - US, Russia, France and others - which have got contracts to build nuclear plants will need indigenous component. ‘We invited Canadian nuclear companies to join our eight-company consortium to participate in the Indian nuclear business.’’
This was the first high-level interaction by Indian nuclear companies with their Canadian counterparts after the two countries signed a nuclear agreement during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visit to Canada for the G-20 summit last year.
Since India’s nuclear programme started with a CANDU reactor donated by Canada in the early 1950s, India was invited to the nuclear show by the Organization of CANDU Industries (OCI).
CANDU stands for Canadian Deuterium Uranium in reference to the use of natural uranium and deuterium oxide (heavy water) in Canadian-invented reactors.
But Canada snapped nuclear ties with New Delhi after the 1974 Pokhran test, alleging that India used its CANDU technology to make the bomb.
It took the two countries 36 years to resume nuclear ties last year after the the Nuclear Suppliers Groups (NSG) allowed India access to nuclear technology and fuel in 2009.
Canada is the pioneer of CANDU technology in the 1940s. Unlike Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) and Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) which require enriched uranium, CANDU reactors are moderated by heavy water using natural uranium oxide.
Known for their safety record, CANDU reactors are currently also being used by India, China, Pakistan, South Korea, Argentina and Romania for power generation.