One year on, the Japanese can’t still get over the nightmare of meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex, triggered by a catastrophic tsunami, that has left all but two of the country’s 54 nuclear power plants idled for rigorous stress tests. Some people near the disaster area still can’t sleep at night, 22.5 million tonnes of tsunami debris are still on the ground since other areas won’t accept them for disposal fearing radiation contamination, and calls for moving away from nuclear power that supplies 30 per cent of Japan’s electricity needs continue to grow.
But Fukushima hasn’t dampened the spirits of two Asian countries, Vietnam and Bangladesh, who want to press ahead with their plans to join the nuclear power game. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the two are among five countries – the others are United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Belarus – likely to start work this year on their first nuclear reactors. Five other Asian countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore – touched base with IAEA in the past year but, as of this moment, Vietnam and Bangladesh are the eager beavers.
Vietnam, currently a hydro-centric country, believes the nuclear option is its best bet for a secure energy future in the face of rapidly rising demand. In October 2010, it signed an agreement with the Russian atomic energy company, Rusatom, for two 1,000-Mw nuclear power plants in the southern Ninh Thuan province. Last October, another agreement was signed with a Japanese consortium for two more reactors, also in Ninh Thuan. Reports say South Korea could emerge as Vietnam’s third nuclear supplier.
Hanoi plans to build a total of eight nuclear plants producing 15,000 Mw of electricity by 2030, and Le Dinh Tien, Vietnam’s deputy minister of science and technology, thinks Fukushima is actually a blessing in disguise. “Assessment of the blasts at the Fukushima plant will help us develop an appropriate nuclear programme,” he recently said. A similar sentiment was expressed by Lady Barbara Judge, chairperson emeritus of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, at the World Nuclear Power Briefing 2012 in Hanoi last January. “I think Vietnam is in a good position because it’s doing this after Fukushima,” she said, adding, “it’s not wavering.”
One could say the same thing of Bangladesh that, according to IAEA, has made “notable” progress in developing infrastructure for nuclear power. As things now stand, construction of the first of two 1,000-Mw units is due to start later this year at Rooppur, in Pabna district, some 200 km west of Dhaka, with Russia agreeing in principle to finance up to 85 per cent of the cost. Under a recently signed inter-governmental agreement, Russia will supply fuel for the two units, take back spent fuel and provide all necessary training. The draft of an atomic energy regulatory Act is now being vetted and will be presented in Parliament soon.
Rooppur is actually an old story going back to 1961, when Bangladesh was East Pakistan and 292 acres of land were acquired for the project by the then government. The sights were modest back then – 70 Mw to 200 Mw – but the plan foundered on the question of financing. After the 1971 liberation war, the project slipped out of focus as national reconstruction became the immediate priority. The idea was retrieved in 1997, a site safety report was finalised in 2002 and IAEA formally committed its support in 2007. The years since then have been spent in drawing up legal and support systems and agreeing on safety protocols.
Bangladesh’s Science and Technology Minister Yeafesh Osman says the Rooppur plant will have a five-layer safety shield to prevent meltdown and radiation leak. Even a big aircraft crashing on the reactor building won’t be able to crack it apart, he claims.
That Fukushima won’t wean the world away from nuclear energy is clear. There’s caution, of course, but also the realisation that Fukushima was no Chernobyl and radiation fallout isn’t something that can’t be contained by technology. In fact, because of Fukushima, people expect even higher safety levels in future. This will precisely be the focus of the Nuclear Safety Summit in Seoul later this month, where about 40 heads of state will discuss how to strengthen global atomic safety against natural disasters and terrorist attacks.
As the Fukushima trauma wears off, countries like China and India that are already established as nuclear power producers will be encouraged to stay their course, and new aspirants like Malaysia and Thailand will keep doing their homework. Even in Japan, unless the current run of stress tests comes out highly negative, public opinion isn’t expected to turn back on nuclear power altogether, although the government has temporarily shelved a 2010 plan that would have boosted the share of nuclear power to more than 50 per cent of demand by 2030.
