India to review safety of N-units

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose push for nuclear power as the mantra for India’s progress has been criticised as a dangerous obsession, was compelled on Monday to order a safety review of the country’s atomic units.

“The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and its agencies, including the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) have been instructed to undertake an immediate technical review of all safety systems of our nuclear power plants, particularly with a view to ensuring that they would be able to withstand the impact of large natural disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes,” Dr Singh told the Lok Sabha.

The DAE plans to build a large fleet of fast breeder nuclear reactors in the coming years. However, many other countries that have experimented with fast reactors have shut down their programmes due to technical and safety difficulties. India was in touch with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Japanese Atomic Industrial Forum and the World Association of Nuclear Operators, following Friday’s tsunami havoc in Japan