Recent Nuclear meltdown at Fukushima plant in Japan has raised manu questions....Can we cope with it now...have we learnt any lessons from Chernobyl..??
The term "meltdown" raises associations with two nuclear accidents in living memory: Three Mile Island in the US in 1979, and Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986.
In both, excess heat in the reactor caused fuel to melt - and in the first, wider melting of the core. The question is whether the same thing has happened in Fukushima.
It appears that the reactor was shut down well before any melting occurred, which should reduce considerably the risk of radioactive materials entering the environment.
However, the detection of caesium isotopes outside the power station buildings could imply that the core has been exposed to the air.
Although Japan has a long and largely successful nuclear power programme, officials have been less than honest about some incidents in the past, meaning that official reassurances are unlikely to convince everyone this time round.
Replies
but why so?. We construct any project by studying all the possible aspects which can cause a disaster. some how disaster occurs in the aspects which was thought possibly to be safe. So the main question that raises when such incidents occur is whether we need a nuclear power plant or not?
Dear Pooja
Thanks for msg + attachment on nuclear disaster/lessions.
Hope most of the environmentalists / nuclear scientists of India may accept that
WE NEED TO ASCERTAIN WHAT IS THE LEVEL OF AWARNESS CREATED so far ON NUCLEAR WASTE DISPOSAL/ SAFETY / DISASTER MGMT in India. I feel we have to practice a lot in nuclear waste.
In Envir engg curriculum also NOT MUCH EMPHSIS was GIVEN ON THIS SUBJECT when i graduated in 1994
Of course, now we Indian scientific community has to take initiatives /steps towards making this subject as one of the major in curriculum. My views..
Regards
Jeyaram
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/26/russia-nuclear-safety-cher...