‘Indian nuke plants poorly managed’

NEW DELHI—Inspections of nuclear power plants and research reactors during 2004-2005 in India revealed 271 “procedural inadequacies” and 109 “departures from good practices,” the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has said. The nuclear watchdog agency said as many as 44 “significant events” related to operational safety occurred in these facilities including one at the Narora plant that experienced “uncontrolled power rise due to failure of reactor regulating system.” This event fell under category-2 in the international event scale of zero to seven, the Board said. In two of the four category-1 events at Madras and Rajasthan plants, some workers were over-exposed to radiation, AERB’s annual report said. Important observations during inspections listed by AERB included failure of fire detectors at Kakrapar station, failure of power supply for emergency cooling at Madras station and failure of check valve for emergency cooling at Kaiga station. The AERB said it has decided to review the experience of the recent tsunami and “factor the new insights appropriately into the design requirements of nuclear facilities at coastal site.”—INP