Safety measures for nuclear plants
It is said that electricity produced from 3 tonnes of coal or 2.5 tonnes of fossil fuel can be produced fromonly one gram of uranium. But as it is an advanced technology, only 32 countries so far in the world could generate power from it. We have heard that Bangladesh is setting up two 1,000-megawatt nuclear plants at Rooppur with Russian technology.
However, disasters related to nuclear power plant have become a great concern all over the world. There have been three major accidents in the 50-year history of civil nuclear power generation. These are: 1) Fukushima (Japan 2011), 2) Chernobyl (Ukraine 1986), 3) Three Mile Island (USA 1979). It is noteworthy that these are the major accidents to have occurred in over 14,500 cumulative reactor-years of commercial nuclear power operation in the world.
Anyway, we have learnt that to achieve optimum safety, nuclear plants in the western world operate using a 'defence-in-depth' approach, with multiple safety systems supplementing the natural features of the reactor core. The key aspects of the approach are: high-quality design and construction, equipment which prevents operational disturbances or human failures and errors developing into problems, comprehensive monitoring, diverse systems to control damage to fuel and prevent significant radioactive releases, and provision to confine the effects of severe fuel damage to the plant itself.
We hope our government will give emphasis on the highest level of safety measures during setting up the plant and generating power from it.
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