Post by Moses on Jan 4, 2005 9:38:18 GMT -5
www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050103-105842-2093r.htm
Chennai, the forth-largest city in India with 6 million inhabitants, is breathing a quiet sigh of relief along with nuclear environmentalists that the tsunami that devastated the Indian Ocean region on Dec. 26 did not breach the country's Madras Atomic Power Station nuclear facility in Kalpakkam, located 50 miles south of the coastal city. Kalpakkam houses two pressurized heavy water reactors and a test reactor, a reprocessing plant. A prototype 500-megawatt fast breeder reactor is under construction there. Kalpakkam is not only a power generating facility, but also does fuel reprocessing and contains a waste treatment facility that includes plutonium fuel fabrication for fast breeder reactors and an interim storage facility. Chennai, known until 1996 as Madras, has received electricity from Kalpakkam since 1984. The tsunami forced seawater into the 220 megawatt second reactor's pump-house forcing a shutdown, which lasted until Jan. 2, while 65 Kalpakkam employees living in a nearby residential compound lost their lives, according to the state-run Nuclear Power Corp Ltd. Environmentalists stress the fact that the fast breeder reactor's site is just 10 to 18 feet above sea level.
Chennai, the forth-largest city in India with 6 million inhabitants, is breathing a quiet sigh of relief along with nuclear environmentalists that the tsunami that devastated the Indian Ocean region on Dec. 26 did not breach the country's Madras Atomic Power Station nuclear facility in Kalpakkam, located 50 miles south of the coastal city. Kalpakkam houses two pressurized heavy water reactors and a test reactor, a reprocessing plant. A prototype 500-megawatt fast breeder reactor is under construction there. Kalpakkam is not only a power generating facility, but also does fuel reprocessing and contains a waste treatment facility that includes plutonium fuel fabrication for fast breeder reactors and an interim storage facility. Chennai, known until 1996 as Madras, has received electricity from Kalpakkam since 1984. The tsunami forced seawater into the 220 megawatt second reactor's pump-house forcing a shutdown, which lasted until Jan. 2, while 65 Kalpakkam employees living in a nearby residential compound lost their lives, according to the state-run Nuclear Power Corp Ltd. Environmentalists stress the fact that the fast breeder reactor's site is just 10 to 18 feet above sea level.