[One (rather minor) curious point is how many more, two are already there at Koodankulam - one under continuous/indefinite shutdown since September 26 last after having attained "criticality" in July last year, and the other one yet to be commissioned - nuclear reactors are to be delivered by Russia over the next 20 years - 10 or 12? (Perhaps Koodankulam 3 & 4 are not included in the figure "10". The deal for these two reactors appear to have now been finally clinched.)
The major issue here is of course the stark fact that despite its well demonstrated appalling performance at Koodankulam any further order, and that too of this magnitude, is being placed on Russia/Rosatom. And, the still more important issue of course is the very decision to push further ahead the nuclear power programme in India despite it being as of now uneconomic, as compared to conventional power sources - the least of the arguments against it; intrinsically hazardous - as it deals with radioactive substances and there is as yet no fail-safe method of (radioactive) waste disposal and decommissioning and disposal of the outlived plants; and potentially catastrophic - as so vividly demonstrated by Chernobyl, as per one estimate nearly one million additional deaths the world over have been caused by it, and, much more recent Fukushima. As a consequence, globally nuclear power is on a declining curve despite vigorous lobbying by the nuclear industry and its cohorts. In terms of plans to build new reactors, China, Russia and India are the three most notable exceptions. (See: <http://www.vox.com/2014/8/1/5958943/nuclear-power-rise-fall-six-charts>.) Coming back to the appalling performance of the nuclear reactor-1 at Koodankulam, it bears recalling that this reactor is this time under (unplanned) shutdown since Sept. 26 this year because of problems in the associated turbine (see: <http://www.ndtv.com/article/south/unit-1-of-kudankulam-power-plant-shut-down-for-6-to-8-weeks-609553>). By the fag end of the following month, i.e. October, the Rosatom had issued a statement informing "that the unit shutdown Sep 26 followed certain deviations found in the "turbo-arlernator", and it will resume operations by December [see: <http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/minor-problem-stalls-kudankulam-no-safety-issues-expert-114102200888_1.html>]." Now the *estimated* date of restart stands re-revised to January 22 next year (see: <http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/kudankulam-nuclear-plant-to-start-commercial-ops-by-jan-22/article6604909.ece>), after having been (at least once) revised to December 22, or thereabout (see: <http://indianexpress.com/article/business/business-others/restart-of-operations-at-kudankulam-nuclear-plant-to-take-a-fortnight-longer/>). We reproduce below two write-ups - one a detailed account of its performance, and the other, a sort of a chronicle of a death foretold by A Gopalakrishnan, a former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) of India, at sl. nos. V & VI respectively.] I/VI. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/russia-agrees-to-supply-12-nuclear-reactors-to-india-over-20-years/articleshow/45471506.cms Russia agrees to supply 12 nuclear reactors to India over 20 years By PTI | 11 Dec, 2014, 01.08PM IST NEW DELHI: Russia will build at least 12 nuclear reactors in India by 2035 and agreed to manufacture advanced helicopters as both countries today signed 20 pacts in oil, gas, defence, investment and other key sectors to futher ramp up their strategic cooperation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in their annual summit, vowed to take the close ties to a new level as both sides outlined a new vision for nuclear energy cooperation. Calling Russia a "pillar of strength" for India, Modi, in a joint media interaction with Putin, said the strategic partner will remain New Delhi's "most important defence partner" though options have increased. "President Putin and I discussed a broad range of new defence projects. We also discussed how to align our defence relations to India's own priorities, including Make in India. Snipped II/VI. http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/india-russia-to-outline-joint-vision-statement/16898.html Published on: Dec 11 2014 7:52PM India, Russia ink 20 agreements Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Wednesday. AFP New Delhi, December 1 India and Russia on Thursday inked 20 agreements, including 13 commercial contracts, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin held summit talks here. Among the documents inked was the "Strategic Vision for Strengthening Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy" that "envisages a roadmap of bilateral cooperation in the civil nuclear energy sector for the next two decades". ***The roadmap is for Russia building 12 nuclear units in India at sites to be identified*** [emphasis added]. Another document inked was for providing "Technical data and information nondisclosure in the framework of cooperation in the field of peaceful use of nuclear energy". This "envisages provisions/terms of information exchange between the nuclear agencies of both the countries. Will provide an impetus to scientific and technological cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy", the official statement said. Both sides also inked a "programme of cooperation (PoC)" for cooperation in the field of oil and gas in 2015-16. This sets out a concrete programme for cooperation, envisaging projects including joint exploration and production of hydrocarbons, long-term LNG supplies and joint study of a hydrocarbon pipeline system connecting Russia with India. Another agreement was for "training of Indian armed forces personnel in military educational establishments of the defence ministry of the Russian Federation". Both sides inked a protocol for consultation between their foreign ministries and another agreement for healthcare cooperation. Among the major commercial agreements signed was a memorandum of understanding between ESSAR and ROSNEFT for long-term supply of crude oil. This envisages 10-year supply and purchase by India of crude oil and feed stocks/products. ***A formal contract between Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and Russia's Atomstroyexport (ASE) [a subsidiary of Rosatom] was signed for units 3 and 4 of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu*** [emphasis added]. This will "mark the commencing of the implementation of the units 3 and 4 of Kudankulam nuclear power plant with supply of some major equipment by Atomstroyexport", which is Russia's nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly. An MoU was inked between FICCI and Delovaya Rossiya, an All-Russia business association, which aims at broadening and strengthening economic ties and identifying new areas of economic cooperation. This will facilitate exchange of information and support to enterprises in both countries. Oil India Limited and Zarubezhneft, a Russian state-controlled oil company, inked an MoU that envisages cooperation in joint search and evaluation of new hydrocarbons exploration, production, and transportation projects. This will facilitate technological association on hydrocarbon projects in India. -- IANS III/VI. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/9a5671fa-8131-11e4-896c-00144feabdc0.html December 11, 2014 1:23 pm Russia pledges 10 more nuclear reactors in India Victor Mallet in New Delhi and Kathrin Hille in Moscow epa04524255 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) before their meeting in New Delhi, India, 11 December 2014. Putin is in the Indian capital on a one-day official visit. EPA/STR(c)EPA Russia and India agreed on Thursday to renew their frayed relationships in energy, defence and trade, with leaders ***Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi promising construction of at least 10 more Russian nuclear power reactors in India over the next two decades*** [emphasis added]. "Today, we have outlined an ambitious vision for nuclear energy," Mr Modi announced at a joint news conference with Mr Putin in New Delhi. At a time of increasing economic isolation of Russia by the west, Mr Putin has been keen to strengthen relationships with emerging market trading partners. India, for its part, has neither criticised nor supported Russia's annexation of Crimea and its involvement in eastern Ukraine. The recently commissioned 1,000-megawatt first unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in south India, built by Russia, has already increased Indian nuclear electricity output by a fifth. Another reactor is due to begin operating next year, with two more to follow. ***In a tacit acknowledgment of the cost overruns and long delays hampering previous projects, the agreement commits India to finding a site in addition to Kudankulam for building more reactors. The agreement says both sides will seek "to minimise the total cost and time of construction of nuclear power units".*** [Emphasis added.] During the cold war, Russia was considered a loyal friend of India and became its main arms supplier, but in recent years New Delhi has sought to broaden its range of alliances and moved closer to the US and its Asia-Pacific allies Japan and Australia. Mr Modi struck up an apparently warm relationship with President Barack Obama on his visit to Washington this year and will host him at India's Republic Day ceremonies in January. The US, in turn, is eager to boost trade and defence ties with India, and last year delivered more weapons to India than any other supplier. Russia has identified India as a market that could help offset weakening trade, investment and diplomatic ties with the west following the crisis in Ukraine. Since the onset of western sanctions against Russia earlier this year, Mr Putin has emphasized the need to crank up Russian trade, investment and security co-operation with Asian nations. China has become the focus of this push with bilateral agreements to build two massive pipelines for Russian gas exports. But Russian officials say Moscow must balance its reliance on Beijing with increased ties to other Asian nations, naming South Korea and Singapore as potential sources of foreign investment and technology, and India as another important energy market, arms buyer and security partner. Moscow also hopes to see the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation evolve into a more meaningful security alliance by having India, Pakistan and Mongolia join next year. According to Samir Patil, national security expert at Indian think-tank Gateway House, delays in Russian arms supplies, defective spare parts and arguments over cost have led to "troubled defence ties" between India and Russia since the cold war and opened the door to US and Israeli manufacturers. ***Mr Modi nevertheless said "Russia will remain our most important defence partner"*** [emphasis added] and announced that Russia had offered full manufacture in India of one its helicopter models. He also recalled that his first trip outside Delhi as prime minister was to the $2.3bn Indian aircraft carrier Vikramaditya, a modified Kiev-class Soviet vessel. Among the 20 documents signed during Mr Putin's one-day visit to India were several relating to co-operation in oil and gas, including one envisaging a joint study for a Russia-India pipeline and another between Rosneft and Essar for the supply of Russian oil to Indian refineries over the next 10 years. Mr Modi described collaboration in oil and gas to date as "disappointing". Mr Putin - in an earlier interview with news agency Press Trust of India - said bilateral trade between the two countries fell by a tenth last year to $10bn. "It is important to reverse this trend," he said. IV/VI. http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/12/11/india-russia-idINKBN0JO2CA20141211 Modi to Putin: Russia to stay India's top defence partner By Douglas Busvine and Denis Dyomkin NEW DELHI Thu Dec 11, 2014 7:48pm IST Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives for a photo opportunity ahead of their meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi December 11, 2014. REUTERS-Adnan Abidi Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a photo opportunity ahead of their meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi December 11, 2014. REUTERS-Adnan Abidi Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives for a photo opportunity ahead of their meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi December 11, 2014. REUTERS-Adnan Abidi 1 of 4. Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives for a photo opportunity ahead of their meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi December 11, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Adnan Abidi (Reuters) - Prime Minister Narendra Modi told President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that Russia will remain India's top defence supplier, even though New Delhi's options had improved since the end of the Cold War. Modi spoke after a one-day summit that sought to revive a relationship that peaked in the Soviet era. The two sides signed billions of dollars of deals in nuclear power, oil and defence. In the biggest, ***state-owned Rosatom will build 12 nuclear reactors in India*** [emphasis added], oil major Rosneft (ROSN.MM) signed a 10-year crude supply deal with Essar Oil (ESRO.NS) and India agreed to assemble 400 Russian multi-role helicopters a year. The Ka-226T twin-engined helicopter deal is important for Modi, who wants to upgrade a military that relies on outdated Soviet equipment and build India's defence production capacity. "Even if India's options have increased, Russia remains our most important defence partner," Modi, 64, told reporters after the first formal summit between the leaders since he won election in May. Putin's visit comes as the Kremlin grapples with a sliding oil price and an economy that has been undermined by Western sanctions over its annexation of Crimea last spring and support for an uprising in eastern Ukraine. The tension over Ukraine intruded on the choreographed visit when it emerged that the Russian-backed leader of Crimea had travelled as part of Putin's delegation. "We highly appreciate the friendship, trust and mutual understanding with Indian partners," said Putin, who chiefly touched on bilateral issues in his statement to journalists. No questions were allowed. VISION The two leaders presided over the signing of a "vision" document setting out a roadmap for cooperation in the sphere of nuclear power. Putin said Russia could eventually supply India with 20 nuclear reactors. In the event, ***Rosatom said that it would supply 12 nuclear energy reactors for India over 20 years*** [emphasis added]. A 1,000-megawatt reactor is operating at the Russian-built Kudankulam power station in Tamil Nadu, with a second due on-stream in 2015. Indian officials said a total of six reactors will be built at Kudankulam. A further six will follow at a site to be determined. Other strategic deals covered oil supply, infrastructure and an increase in direct diamond sales to India by Russian state monopoly Alrosa (ALRS.MM). On defence, the two sides will seek to move ahead with long-delayed projects to develop a joint fifth-generation fighter jet and a multi-role transport aircraft, in addition to the chopper deal. A spokesman for India's foreign minister said he was not officially aware of the visit by Crimean leader Sergey Aksyonov, who is subject to Western sanctions. But Gul Kripalani, a Mumbai businessman who met the Crimean leader at a New Delhi hotel, told Reuters the talks were unofficial and Aksyonov had travelled to India as part of Putin's delegation. (Additional reporting by Nidhi Verma, Malini Menon and Tommy Wilkes; Editing by Robert Birsel, Larry King) V/VI. http://www.countercurrents.org/padmanabhan031114.htm What Speaks The Speaking Tree? Koodankulam Nuclear Reactor During Its One Year Of Grid Connection By VT Padmanabhan, R Ramesh, V Pugazhendi, & Joseph Makkoli 03 November, 2014 Countercurrents.org The first unit of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP-1) attained criticality on 15 Jul 2013 and was grid connected on 22 Oct 2013. During the 365 days since grid connection, the reactor was under outage for 106 days and on maintenance shut-down for 64 days. It generated 2825 million units (MU) of electricity and consumed 538 MU for house-load (own consumption). The original plan to start commercial generation on 22nd April 2014, six months after its grid connection was postponed twice to 22nd Jul 14 and 22nd Oct 14. Now that the reactor has been shudt down on 25 Sep 14 for repair/replacement of turbo-generator, there is no burden of any deadline. Southern Regional Load Despatch Centre (SRLDC), Bangaluru publishes daily data regarding the productivity and outages of all generating stations connected to the Grid. The full report of a study based on an analysis of the 365 days' grid data of KKNPP is available here.[i] The main highlights are given below: 1. OUTAGES DUE TO TRIPS SRLDC reported 21 outages of KKNPP reactor during the first year since its grid connection. Of these, two outages for maintenances in Novemeber 2013 (for 6 days) and July 2014 (59 days) were planned while all others were forced outages. Five out of the 19 forced outages, which were for short duration (less than a few hours) were for mandatory tests. Each of the remaining 14 outages lasted for more than 2 days. These were events known as 'trips' or 'scrams' in reactor engineering. When the Information and Control (I&C) system detects a defect in the reactor system, which has the potential of maturing into an accident, a trip is actuated, leading to the release of all control rods within three seconds, without the knowledge of the operators. Too many scrams place "unnecessary strain on plant components". Trip being a bad word, the KKNPP managers have been using a more acceptable word "shut-down", in their media briefs. The Kudankulam reactor experienced 14 trips during its 4701 hours of operation. As trip rates are usually calculated per 7000 reactor hours, the rate for KKNPP is 20.8. According to the World Nuclear Association (WNA), the trip rate is 0.37 for all the reactors in the world and 0.25 for 10 best performing reactors. Average loss of productivity per trip for KKNPP is 7.5 days as against 1.5 days for all reactors in WNA analysis. In USA a plant with 25 scrams during 7,000-hours is issued a "red" citation and will be forced to shut down. 2. Analysis of abnormal events by system involved Besides the 14 trips, there was also an accident in which two workers received serious musculo-skeletal and burn injuries on 14 May 14. Out of the total 15 events, the turbo-generators was involved in 6, the feed-water system was involved in 4, the reactor system was involved in 3 and the description is vague in the case of the remaining two trips. After a trip, a detailed study of the underlying causes and the remedial actions to prevent its recurrence are charted. Such information of trips of other reactors in the world are available in the public domain. In the case of KKNPP, all such information is proprietary of the Russian company and NPCIL holds them in a fiduciary capacity. An analysis of the 14 May pipe burst accident in the feed-water system of KKNPP, published earlier showed the collusion of the operator and the regulator in India for suppressing critical, safety related information.[ii] Since trips at KKNPP were caused by defects in different systems, it appears that the reactors' problems are severe and systemic. 'Experts' of the Russian company Rosatom and NPCIL are trying to show that the problem is a minor one and is limited to one (T-G) system alone and they already have a solution in hand. 3. The Blind men and the Elephant In all reports about an outage to SRLDC, the anticipated date of revival is also given. In all the 16 outages, the actual revival took place days after the anticipated date. The case of the maintenance shut-down of 16 July 14 is the most interesting one. On the day of shut down, they promised to be back in 31 days. The revival date was extended seven times and after 59 days, the reactor was online on 14th September. The machine tripped again a few hours later "for excitor diode testing". One wonders, why this test was not done during the maintenance! These delays indicate that the experts in the commissioning group are totally unfamilar with the machine they have a mandate to tame. 4. Seven failed attempts to pass the final test On 1st May 2014, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) gave its consent for the final test (C-3), in which the reactor power is raised to 900 MW, and then to 1000 MW for a limited duration of time, brought down to 900 MW and stabilized at that level for at least 7 days. During the C-3 phase (5th May 14 and 25 Oct 14 -173 days) the reactor could operate only for 64 days because of five trips and one maintenance. All the 7 attempts to conduct C-3 test by the commissioning crew at KKNPP failed. After the sixth attempt, the reactor was placed under maintenance on 16 Jul to 13 Sep 14 (59 days). The generator was online for another 12 days from 15 to 26 Sep 2014. During this period, the power output never reached 900 MW. 5. Comparison with other reactors of similar capacity The reactors at KKNPP are certified as Generation-3. There are only two other operating reactors in the world, belonging to this genre. Nuclear industry claims that Gen-3 reactors are inherently safe, more ecofriendly and have much lower construction time. Shin Wolsong-1 reactor in S. Korea was commercially commissioned in Jul 2012, 1715 days after the first pour of concrete. KKNPP is nowhere near its target, even 4618 days after its first pour of concrete. KKNPP-1 is unlikely to start commercial operation even 400 days after its grid connection. There are two other VVER-1000 MW reactors which took longer - Bushehr in Iran-751 days, and Temelin-1 in Czech Republic -536 days. These were due to geo-political reasons. The best among the recently commissioned reactors on this count - Tianwan-2 and Hongyanhe-2 both in China were commercially commissioned on the 94th and 109th day of grid connection respectively. Three other VVER-1000 reactors -Kalinin-3 & 4 and Rostov-2 - commissioned in Russia during the past 10 years had a gap of 250+ days between the grid connection and the commercial production. The electricity generated during the commissioning phase by them was 11.9, 14.2 and 14.9 MU per day respectively as against 6.3 MU p.d of KKNPP.(IAEA PRIS database) 6. Counterfeit and obsolete equipment A study by an international team of authors, includings academics from the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Bremen University and Sussex University, based on official documents from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), NPCIL and their Russian counterparts had concluded that major equipment like the reactor presssure vessel (RPV) and the polar crane are obsolete and counterfeit.[iii] Many of the equipment rendered surplus due to post-Chernobyl and post-Soviet cancellation of over 25 VVER-1000 reactors have been incorporated in Kudankulam, China, Iran and also in Russia's Kalinin and Rostov power stations. The study underliens that the polar crane, a safety related equipment has only 80% of its name-plate capacity. The first outage at KKNPP, on the day of grid connection was caused due to 'reverse power'. In simple terms, what it means is that the generator, which is supposed to produce electricity became a consumer of electricity. The reactor consumes about 2 million units of electricity a day, when it is not working. Not a big sacrifice for the Southern grid. 7. The Speaking Tree Dr BK Subbarao, nuclear phyisicist who had designed a pressurized water reactor for Indian Navy's nuclear submarine had written a year ago that KKNPP reactor is a speaking tree. Since her marriage with the grid, KKNPP-1 has spoken for 4701 hours in 14 episodes. She spoke for 56 days during the first ninety days. Her eloquence is being progessively replaced by silence. During the past ninety days, we heard her speak only during nine days. The officials of Rosatom and NPCIL are busy in finalizing the deal for the fifth and sixth reactors, while the commissioning crew at Kudankulam is experiencing the worst nightmares in their lives. In spite of all the postponments, unmet deadlines, a major accident and very high trip rates unheard of during the commissioning of any modern reactors, it is business as usual. This cannot go on. KKNPP has all the ingredients of a perfect disaster and is a global catastrophic risk. The people of the world, their children and their children's children to be born yet, expects more proactive decisions from the Government of India at the highest level. All deals be frozen, the fuel assemblies must be removed from the reactor core and placed in the spent fuel pool immediately, before it is too late. This must be followed by an impartial safety audit by a body of independent scientists and a thorough financial audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. The authors are independent analysts working on nuclear safety, food safety and other environmental-health issues at the Society for Science, Ethics and Environment (SO-SEE). [email protected] 9198467 63770 Postscript The commander of the commissioning crew, the Station Director and their team of scientists, engineers and technicians and also experts from the AERB have all experienced emergencies lived through by a senior reactor operator in Europe during the past two decades of his services. The nation salutes those brave men and the regulator's scientists for handling the crises calmly and for averting a major nuclear disaster. [i] VT Padmanabhan et.al, https://www.academia.edu/9052309/WHAT_SPEAKS_THE_SPEAKING_T REE_PERFORMANCE_ANALYSIS_OF_KUDANKULAM_REACTOR_DURING_ITS_ONE_YEAR_OF_GRID_CONNECTION [ii] https://www.academia.edu/7345624/REPORT_OF_THE_14_MAY_2014_ ACCIDENT_AT_THE_KUDANKULAM_NUCLEAR_POWER_PLANT_INDIA [iii] https://www.academia.edu/6985061/Counterfeit_obsolete_Equipment_and_Nuclear_Safety_Issues_of_Vver-1000_Reactors_at_Kudankulam_India VI. http://www.newindianexpress.com/columns/Resolve-Koodankulam-issues/2013/04/19/article1551164.ece Resolve Koodankulam issues By A Gopalakrishnan Published: 19th April 2013 07:36 AM Last Updated: 19th April 2013 07:36 AM The first of the two 1000 MWe VVER nuclear reactors at Koodankulam Project (KKNP-1), under commissioning and testing , is supplied by the Russian atomic energy corporation, Rosatom ,through its subsidiary, Atomstroyexport. On the Indian side , the KKNP project is owned by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) , a public sector undertaking of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) . The overall safety regulation responsibility is with the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) . Crucial materials and reactor parts have been exported to KKNP-1 & 2 by a Russian government-owned company called Machine-Building Plant ZiO-Podolsk (ZiO) , which is another Rosatom subsidiary. ***ZiO-Podolsk*** (emphasis added) supplies have been sent for years to all the Russian nuclear power plants, and to most of the VVER plants exported to countries like India, Iran, China and Bulgaria. These include important safety subsystems , equipment , components and materials supplied over the years to KKNP-1 & 2 . ***KKNP-1 was originally scheduled to start operation in early 2010 , but presently even the final start-up testing is not completed . In January 2013 , the Secretary, DAE, stated that he was totally certain that the reactor would be started that month itself, but it did not happen.*** [Emphasis added.] ***From NPCIL's continuing inability to start-up KKNP-1 till now , it is very obvious that the Indo-Russian commissioning team at Koodankulam is facing some serious problems which they never anticipated.*** [Emphasis added.] The congenital lack of transparency from which the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the nuclear sector organisations are suffering always prevents the public from knowing the real story. ***The DAE Secretary's reasons for the delay in KKNP-1 start-up is that " the engineers have opened up a few of the valves and such components for maintenance and it's taking some time." M.R Srinivasan, Member (AEC), is reported to have said, "We sought an additional safety mechanism , which consists of valves. The original reactor design had to be altered and I believe this is the basic cause for delay . The valves were designed partially in India and Russia and compatibility with the reactor led to some hiccups."*** [Emphasis added.] ***The fact that a high-cost , high-risk nuclear reactor is facing defects and deficiencies in its components and equipment even before it is started up is highly unusual, and this indicates gross failures at several levels in the DAE-AERB-NPCIL-Atomstroyexport combine.*** [Emphasis added.] ***If designs have been checked and followed , procurement of materials and fabrication have been done as per technical specifications, testing and quality control at the manufacturer's shops were comprehensive, and NPCIL's Quality Assurance (QA) before acceptance of supplies at site were strictly as per nuclear norms, these problems could not have arisen at the commissioning stage.*** [Emphasis added.] If news trickling out of KKNP-1 site is to be trusted, ***the Russian special check valves in the passive long-term core flooding system (hydroaccumulator system- stage 2) are defective as received and, at this late hour an order to manufacture one or more such valves has been placed on a reputed Hyderabad company. One or more of the new Russian valves show cracks even at the finish of initial commissioning tests. Similarly, the passive heat removal system (PHRS) is not functioning as per specifications, because the damper -- air heat exchanger -- vane system has not been integrally tested at the Russian manufaturer's works as required and problems were not sorted out there itself.*** [Emphasis added.] There are other problems to list, but the above are typical of the flaws holding up the reactor commissioning. ***Almost all these malfunctioning components and sub-systems have been produced by ZiO-Podolsk*** (emphasis added), and all of them are crucial to the safety of the plant, under beyond-design-basis accidents. The Bellona Foundation, an international environmental NGO based in Norway (http://www.bellona.org/), stated (http://www.anti-atom.ru/en/node/3468 ) in February 2012 that ***the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) had arrested Sergei Shutov, the procurement director of ZiO-Podolsk, on charges of corruption and fraud. The FSB has charged Shutov with buying low-quality raw materials on the cheap over the years, passing them off as high-quality materials, and pocketing the difference***. [Emphasis added.] It is not clear how many reactors have been impacted by this alleged crime, but ***reactors built by Russia in India, Bulgaria, Iran and China are among those suspected to have received sub-standard equipment and components*** (emphasis added), given the timeframe of work completed. Bulgaria has already asked Atomstroyexport and ZiO-Podolsk to provide details of materials used in their reactors, including quality certificates. Similarly , China's Tianwan plant has two VVER-1000 reactors, and the Chinese have raised several hundred queries regarding the low quality of materials and components. ***Investigative Journalists, an NGO based in the Armenian capital, has said (http://hetq.am/eng/news/11194/russian-prosecutors-arrest-state-nuclear-official.html ) that the use of substandard materials could lead to a nuclear disaster. "Stopping and conducting full scale checks of reactors where equipment from ZiO-Podolsk has been installed is absolutely necessary," Vladimir Slivyak, co-chair of Russian environmental NGO Ecodefence, said recently."Otherwise the risk of a serious accident at a nuclear power plant, whose clean-up bill, stretching into the tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars, will have to be footed by taxpayers."*** [Emphasis added.] ***The problems with ZiO-Podolsk supplies to the KKNP-1 Project, seen in the context of the widespread allegations of corruption and poor quality, indicate that the root cause of KKNP-1 problems lies in those sub-standard supplies*** (emphasis added). Recent questions raised under RTI to the AERB and NPCIL resulted only in evasive and pointless replies. Asked about parts supplied by ZiO, AERB says "the selection of a company for supplying any equipment to NPCIL is not under the purview of AERB." For the same query, NPCIL says, "No information regarding any investigation against ZiO-Podolsk is available to NPCIL". Both these DAE organisations were lying in these replies, as is evident from the following facts. The website of the Russian Embassy in India carries the news of a senior Indian delegation (http://www.rusembassy.in/index.php?option=com_content&view= article&id=4881%3A-q-q&catid=10%3A2010-01-21-11-06-46&lang=ru ) headed by AP Joshi, Special Secretary, DAE having visited ZiO-Podolsk from July 15-18, 2012, just about five months after the arrest of Sergei Shutov, Zio-Podolsk's Procurement Director, for fraud and corruption in sending out inferior products to national and foreign reactor projects , including KKNP-1 & 2. The Indian Embassy in Moscow and the NPCIL / DAE personnel stationed there must have certainly known about Shutov's arrest , and the inherent serious implications of his actions on the safety of KKNP-1 & 2. They would have briefed the DAE Secretary about it immediately and through him the PMO would also have been alerted . And yet , both AERB and NPCIL pretend to take the ZiO-Podolsk matter very lightly and feign ignorance . ***One can only surmise that the PMO & the DAE quickly realied the gravity of the potentially explosive situation that could develop vis-a-vis Koodankulam reactor safety, following Shutov's arrest, because by then several crucial equipment, components and materials with alleged poor quality and deficiencies have been already installed in various parts of both units at KKNP and Unit-1 was on its way to commissioning. The PMO & DAE seem to have decided to weather the storm through the joint execution of an Indo-Russian cover-up plan, and hold a firm position that all is well with KKNP supplies.*** [Emphasis added.] After a fire-fighting strategy was framed in India , it would appear that the PMO despatched the Special Secretary, DAE, and his team to visit ZiO-Podolsk and spent three days to firm up the modus operandi of tackling the rather tricky situation which could develop in India once the protesters and the courts of law come to know of the scam details. After all , the PMO's top priority is to meet the PM's promise to President Putin that KKNP-1 will be started up in April 2013, and public safety and corruption come only after that . There could be a large number of equipment, components and materials of substandard quality from ZiO-Podolsk already installed in various parts of KKNP- 1 & 2 whose deficiencies and defects are dormant today, but these very same shortcomings may cause such parts to catastrophically fail when the reactor is operated for some time . Many such parts and materials may have been installed within the reactor pressure vessel itself, which is now closed and sealed in preparation for the start-up. Once the reactor is made critical and reaches power operation, much of these components and materials inside will become radioactive and/or will be in environments where they cannot be properly tested for quality or performance. Under the circumstances , KKNP Unit-1 commissioning and KKNP-2 construction work must be stopped forthwith, and there can be no question of resuming these works towards start-up of both these reactors until a thorough and impartial investigation is carried out into the impact of this corruption scandal and sub-standard supplies on the safety of these reactors. And these investigations must be carried out by a team, where majority membership must not be from DAE , NPCIL and AERB, but include subject experts from other organisations in the country. India must also seriously consider inviting an IAEA expert team specially constituted to investigate the specific issues which this scandal has thrown up. ***Gopalakrishnan is a former Chairman of India's Atomic Energy Regulatory Board*** [Emphasis added.] -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. 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