India is well set to go nuclear in a big way. Despite latest hickups, India's nuclear deal with the states will most probably come through [1], thereby resulting in the proliferation of nuclear reactors in India. This is supposedly needed to accelerate development in India. Many scientists and bureacrats point to the case of France, which generates upwards of 75% of all its electrical energy through nuclear means [2]. We are being told by every politician starting from the PM that India should also do the same to attaing energy security and thus empower its people. It also looks like the 'educated' people in India also want the nuclear energy desperately. This is evident to me from the personal discussions I've had with friends and family, from the messages I've seen on many bulletin boards, from the posts I've read on random blogs etc... So, it does look like nuclear plants are gonna proliferate across the length and breadth of my nation.
Any talk of the extremely hazardous toxic waste [3] that it will generate is quickly brushed aside as talk of self-centered and anti development myopic environmentalists (phrase picked up one of the message boards in rediff). It doesnt matter that one single mistake could mean total annihilation. It doesnt matter that the toxic waste it generates needs to be sageguarded for 500000 years [4] - which incidentally is at least 2 times more than the entire history of the homo sapiens. Issues of storage which are still huge technical problems are minor technicalities to almost everyone. That there is no permanent solution to the waste disposal problem is not our botheration. The extremely simple fact that the waste is not the organic waste we throw out of our houses but is an extremely hazardous toxic waste that could potentially be a reason for end of civilization beats some of the best minds. Also even the current installations used to store waste often leaks radioactive waste [5] into the surrounding environment is not anyone's business.
As talking to fellow humans in an attempt to stop the production of deadly toxins on this beautiful planet
seems pretty pointless to me, I am forced to pray to Lord Shiva to do a repeat of his great poison drinking act [6].
Any talk of the extremely hazardous toxic waste [3] that it will generate is quickly brushed aside as talk of self-centered and anti development myopic environmentalists (phrase picked up one of the message boards in rediff). It doesnt matter that one single mistake could mean total annihilation. It doesnt matter that the toxic waste it generates needs to be sageguarded for 500000 years [4] - which incidentally is at least 2 times more than the entire history of the homo sapiens. Issues of storage which are still huge technical problems are minor technicalities to almost everyone. That there is no permanent solution to the waste disposal problem is not our botheration. The extremely simple fact that the waste is not the organic waste we throw out of our houses but is an extremely hazardous toxic waste that could potentially be a reason for end of civilization beats some of the best minds. Also even the current installations used to store waste often leaks radioactive waste [5] into the surrounding environment is not anyone's business.
As talking to fellow humans in an attempt to stop the production of deadly toxins on this beautiful planet
seems pretty pointless to me, I am forced to pray to Lord Shiva to do a repeat of his great poison drinking act [6].Oh neelakanta,
the one who drank the deadly halahala
thus saving the 14 worlds
when the devas and asuras
churned the oceans
to satiate their greed for amrit
Oh neelakanta,
we need an encore performance
to save this 1 world we have
when the 'educated' few
churn the atoms
to satiate their greed for energy
References
[1] India US nuclear tango - on rediff
[2] Nuclear energy - article on wikipedia
[3] Chapter 4 from the book - 'Nuclear Witnesses - Insiders speak out'
[4] Plutonium life span diagram on ratical
[5] Interview with Arjun Makhijan
[6] Halahala - article on wikipedia
3 comments:
not the length and breadth of the country my frnd. 2 more in the pipeline and it is just that. and if it is fast breeder as the news goes.. then fuel is gonna be re-used.
using solar, hydel and wind are the cleanliest energy sources. and they are being tapped. [know what ? tamil nadu is generating max wind energy...]
iam not saying the country is gonna be spilled with nuclear waste in couple of decades, but at the same time there is gonna be nuclear wastage too i agree.
approach this problem more practically. no use telling about the problem, suggest a solution to meet energy needs..... [reduction in consumption will not scale unfortunately]
When u r hungry, u need to eat food. But if there is no food available, then u have to go hungry. Eating cyanide to satiate hunger is not exactly a bright idea. Nuclear power for the sake of energy is pretty similar.
Setting up a nuclear reactor takes a lot of time and money. So obviously we are not gonna have hundreds overnight. France didnt build all of them overnight. But they will come and will proliferate. Not a good sign.
What do you mean by reduction in consumption not scaling? reduction and scaling together in the same sentence seems to be a funny oxymoron. :). Reduction is the only way dude. Whether we want to agree or not.
Nuclear energy = Annihlation. I think there is enough material on the web to demonstrate these facts.
Hi Bhadhri
I just came up with an answer for you. See if it makes sense ..
1) Now you accept that energy derived from the natural resources like oil, coal is coming down.
Again the energy from the wind, water cannot satisfy the hunger of the consumer.
So the alternative approach is nuclear energy. Now you can see two or more reactors coming up, after 50 years you would probably see one from your house window ( who knows ..).
More logically it all boils down to energy reduction in consumption. I dont think its practical to produce more machines instead of producing more and thinking about sources to energize those.
2) I'm sure that scientist/indusrialist try to something which can make a better living. But if it is not whats the problem in stopping that. It is like you catch a wrong train that lead you to a wrong desination, but we come down and catch the next right train. We dont stay in the wrong destination rite.
So think yourself about a complete solution. Tomorrow you can see computers floating in the rivers. machines and ipods lying in the road, just like plastics now. Because we are dependent on these things more and more will be produced.
bez
3) Thirdly accidents are not inevitable in anything. You know that even 100 Sigams cannot produce something that is 101% perfection, coz human creation is error prone which is a know fact.
If there is an accident, or some terrorsit attack on a nuclear reactor all the industries you have produced will come down to nothing including life.
So we should think what for we are doing? rethink. Do the rite one ..
I have exams for another one week. We should be able to discuss more about this next week.
until then tatatata
-saravanan
Post a Comment