Nuclear neighbours and Sri Lankan energy

Tuesday, 2 September 2014 11:23 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka has the potential to reap the benefits of nuclear positives, especially to prosper the energy sector. Neighbours support on technology is vital

Nuclear is a much discussed topic in the present day international and political arena and security forums. Although the designed out put of nuclear capability is deterrence and destruction, the different nations use this as a power tool or a political tool to achieve the higher status of the regional hegemony. Though countries discussed about regional cooperation, power sharing, and free trade etc the nuclear assets and capabilities contribute vise versa in order to destroy the said important development concepts. This is very much imminent among the countries of the nuclear umbrella that is UK, USA, France, Russia, and China etc. At present, this unhealthy threat is moving to the Asian region especially to South Asia. The two main countries that are part and parcel to this problem in South Asia are India and Pakistan at present. Nuclear energy is one of the cleanest and cheapest modes of energy used in the world. France is the highest among using of nuclear technology for power generation purposes. Also, the world has observed the negative effects of the nuclear power generation by the recent incident in the Fukushima reactor in Japan. But the technologically advanced countries are using very secure and time tested methods to cover the dangers of the system. Considering South Asia, India is highest among the nuclear energy users having fourteen nuclear power generation reactors, especially in the eastern coast of India facing the western coast of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka too is in the process of understanding and studying the advantages of moving to the nuclear power generation. The Ministry of Technology and Research has initiated the process and many discussions are going on with the relevant parties and the agencies. This has been rated as a viable move to counter the on going power crisis and planning for the future energy demands. According to the government vision Sri Lanka is planning to be the ‘Energy Hub’ of South Asia; the ministry has launched the feasibility study program targeting 2020 to become a nuclear energy nation in South Asia. They are also planning to fill the gap of knowledge of the nuclear related operations by collaborating with universities to upgrade the nuclear knowledge to achieve the targets of 2020.

Nuclear bomb threat

India and Pakistan are developing their nuclear arsenal, especially the weapons grade material in order to par with each other. Also, the strangest aspect is that both countries were supported by China or North Korea in different occasions. India had achieved its range officially up to 2,500 km which covers the total geographical area of Pakistan and partially South Asian region threatening the neighbouring countries. Pakistan too had partially covered India and threatening the neighbouring countries with the range of 2,000 km officially. But both countries are trying to achieve the status of ICBM (Inter Continental Ballistic Missile) which can target any of the points in the world. Very recently, (2003) there was an incident where a Malaysian company was trying to sell a centrifugal radio activate material separation system to Libya and Iran which can convert peaceful radio active material to weapons grade material, which shows that nuclear is a lucrative business venture. The world has witnessed the devastation of nuclear bombs activated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 9 August 1949. During the incident 2,700 people died immediately and subsequently. The death toll rose up to 140,000 deaths due to the residual effect of radio activate material. Though this is considered as a hypothetical situation, any country in the range of a nuclear bomb can be affected in different ways.

Nuclear installations

It is really important to talk about the nuclear threat to our own country. Apart from the nuclear bombs, the nuclear power generating stations and other related nuclear facilities emits a great threat to our country. The accidental discharges from nuclear institutes are a common occurrence though it’s hidden from the media for obvious reasons. There were 56 accidental discharges occurred in the world in different installations averaging at least one per year after the Second World War. There are two nuclear installations which are close to our country in the western coast of India. Those are Tuticorin and Koodankulam which are respectively 98 km and 240 km away from Sri Lanka. Comparing the residual effect of nuclear arsenal this distance is a very trivial one. Considering the Chernobyl disaster in Russia as an example, one can conclude that the residual effects travel more than 5,000 km subsequently covering a total Sri Lankan geographical area. But the immediate threat will be to Mannar district and subsequently it may spread up to the adjoining districts like Putlam, Kilinochchi, Anuradapura, Mulathivu etc. Therefore, this threat has the potential to destroy our people, their properties and the environment of the area too, because radio activity might last for thousands of years depending on the respective radio active material.

Remedies to avert the catastrophes

There are various kinds of remedies to avert the threat of this phenomenon. The first step is to make the people aware of the threat by educating them. There was a good example to that effect by the Chernobyl incident (Russia) in Kiev, the city closest to Chernobyl where 110 km away from the incident faced the greatest danger. At the incident 29 people died immediately and subsequently 240,000 died due to the nuclear related sicknesses but all the people of the area who had knowledge of the danger escaped from the disaster. Therefore, educating effecting segment is an important requirement. The other factor is the preventive measures that are taken mainly to identify the dangerous levels of radio activity in the area and protect people by giving them protective gears and assigning them to protect themselves under ground areas. Though it is done by the rich countries in the West, developing countries are far away from those kinds of protective measures since it is costly. Also, this nuclear radiation gives various other effects like electro magnetic pulses which disable electronic parts of the equipment that can damage the total power systems, water systems, communication, transport and basically all the infrastructure in the area isolating people from all counter measures. Legally the countries have the access to employ their monitors and observers if the respective installations effect the other countries, then they will have the control over the procedures and protective systems of the installations which can cause an accidental discharge. Though it has not happened any where in the world this has to be implemented in order to protect the nation. There are many international treaties and conventions to control and stop the nuclear deterrence; those are far from effective in the region. Therefore, the affected countries in the region need to air the voice against the nuclear proliferation to protect the own countries that covered by the nuclear deterrence.

World nuclear energy perception

Nuclear energy was the scapegoat of many countries during the 80s in order to avert the energy crisis of the countries. Further, Russia was famous as the highest nuke users for many kinds of projects other than the energy generation. Also, the Russian federation was famous for installing the cheapest reactors; NBRK reactor bought by India was installed and commissioned by the Russians. Speciality here is, NBRK was totally designed for the out side market of Russia. Then, France came to that position and the nuke energy was the highest supplier in the energy sector around 60% of the total output of France. Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan changed this perception in 180 degrees, because being a hightech country the Japanese did not have viable immediate solutions to the problem. The outcome was the rethinking and alternative views generated by the professionals. Having that background Germany decided to decommission some of the plants and downsized the nuclear plant density. The ultimate result was reduction of the world market demand for the nuclear installations and reduction of the market price and also, emerging of a second hand market for the nuclear installations. Therefore, if Sri Lanka is planning for the nuclear energy in 2020, it is a distant target in terms of demand and price.

Conclusion

Nuclear has more good uses than the bad. The power generation, crack detection, food preservation, sterilising are a few of the good uses. Therefore, this has to be exploited without damaging and destroying the life of the people and the environment. Sri Lanka too is facing a severe power crisis in the country and introduction of nuclear energy installation is one of the viable options. Finally, people have to develop more and more of nuclear related knowledge in order to use the system to the optimum and reduce the threat and dangers to the minimum. Vision of the energy hub can be achieved with targeted feasibility studies and training of the relevant fields to handle and manage the nuclear status. The author has studied ‘Nuclear Proliferation’ under the United States Army and conducted many researches in different countries. Finally, he authored a book ‘Nuclear and Sri Lanka’ and published the matters pertaining to the South Asian nuclear development and effects to the region especially to Sri Lanka.