Defence Beyond Design
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Defence Beyond Design

Contours of India's Nuclear Safety and Security

Sitakanta Mishra

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Defence Beyond Design

Contours of India's Nuclear Safety and Security

Sitakanta Mishra

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About This Book

This book scrutinises the realm of safety-security involving 'nuclear power' within the context of India's tryst with nuclear energy. Relying on open source information, it examines the efficacy of the safety-security arrangement in and around India's nuclear installations, keeping in mind the international best practices.

As India has embarked on a civil nuclear expansion programme, the public concern for safety and security of nuclear facilities and material is obvious, especially in the backdrop of terrorist incidents and the Fukushima disaster. This poses a serious challenge to garnering greater domestic support for new nuclear projects with international collaborations.

Here an attempt is made to examine the issues involving social acceptance of nuclear energy, safe disposal of nuclear waste, regulatory practices, and likely challenges ahead for India, to propose a new nuclear safety-security paradigm by looking beyond the usual 'defence by design' or 'defence in-depth' practice.

Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

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Publisher
Routledge
Year
2017
ISBN
9781351987042

1
Safety-Security-Safeguards: The Intricate Interface

Since its inception, nuclear technology has evoked a sense of optimism as well as awe and fear because of its immense constructive as well as destructive potential. By now, the world has come a long way, experiencing both: around 430 commercial nuclear reactors operating in 31 countries producing 375,000 Mega Watt Electric (MWe) (11 percent of the world’s electricity)1, radioactive materials used in many sectors enriching human life; on the other hand, two nuclear bombs have been used in war and around 19,000 more are stockpiled; during the same time, three major nuclear accidents have occurred,2 resulting in some human suffering; and misuse of nuclear material by non-state actors is widely apprehended. Therefore, the balance sheet may be argued to be mixed, implying that we succeeded as much we failed with nuclear technology. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, what the fate of nuclear technology will be or which direction the nuclear energy discourse will move in has been a matter of speculation.
This study, premised on the assumption that nuclear technology or nuclear energy cannot be ignored as it has an edge over other forms of energy, especially for India, argues for a better management paradigm by looking beyond the design basis framework to address inherent loopholes. The successive chapters scrutinise India’s tryst with nuclear energy and the safety-security governance. This chapter specifically lays down the dynamics of nuclear safety-security-safeguards conceptually and the global governance regime of nuclear technology. On the basis of empirical analyses of various aspects of India’s nuclear energy discourse, the study attempts to deconstruct the real and assumed threats (accident, misuse, and terror), the nomenclature of India’s safety-security architecture in place, and prescribes at the end a coherent and integrated strategy to devise a defence mechanism by looking beyond the ‘design basis’construct.

Edge over Other Forms

Despite the past half century’s global experience, it is not yet fully established that “nuclear power has an edge over other forms of energy, in terms of limiting day-to-day adverse health and environmental effects, including greenhouse gas emissions, and in terms of the frequency and toll of major accidents”.3 In comparison to coal, gas, hydro, and wind energy sources, the morbidity and greenhouse gas emission per terawatt-hour in the case of the nuclear energy source is much lower. According to a study by Edward D. Blandford and Michael M. May of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, nuclear energy, that constitutes around 14 percent of global energy consumption, has the lowest morbidity (0.04 deaths per terawatt-hour) compared to the coal-related energy production process (161 deaths per terawatt-hour) that constitutes 42 percent of global energy consumption. In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, while coal produces 800-1,400 tons per gigawatt-hour, the nuclear industry produces less than 50 tons.4
Table 1.1 Sources of Electricity, their Morbidity and Greenhouse Gas Emission Per Unit of Electricity Produced
Source (% of world use, 2007) Deaths per terawatt-hour Tons of greenhouse gas emissions per gigawatt-hour (life)
Coal (4.2%) 161(U.S. average is 15) 800–1,400
Gas (21%) 4 300–500
Hydro (16%) 0.1 (Europe) Small-100
Wind (<1%) 0.15 Small-50
Nuclear (14%) 0.04 Small-50
Source: Edward D. Blandford and Michael M. May, “Lessons Learned from Lessons ‘Learned’: The Evolution of Nuclear Power Safety after Accidents and Near-Accidents”, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2012, p. 23.
The low morbidity in the nuclear sector is mainly owing to the fact that the same amount of electricity can be obtained from about 200 to 300 tons of uranium ore as from 3 to 4 million tons of coal or similarly large quantities of gas or oil. No combustion is involved in nuclear energy generation; rather, smaller tonnage is mined, transported, and processed in comparison to other sources. However, the relative costs and benefits of nuclear energy have remained a subject of heated debate. While critics argue that nuclear energy is not only dangerous but also unnecessary for tackling climate change, supporters claim that the risks are small and that abandoning the nuclear source would make an already huge challenge even more difficult and expensive.
Undoubtedly, there is a lot of uncertainty about the cost of nuclear power compared to the alternatives and these uncertainties increase as one looks towards the future.5 For decades ahead, decarbonising electric power will be critical for solving climate change concerns. The world will need twice as much electricity in 2050 as it does today. As other alternatives are depleting or not up to the mark, nuclear power has the potential to address both the concerns, provided the uncertainties are clarified at the earliest. The Committee on Climate Change, UK, in a study has estimated the cost of nuclear energy as falling somewhere above ‘low cost’ options such as onshore wind, mini-hydro and some bio-fuels, but below ‘expensive’ options such as offshore wind and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).6 The report asserts that deep reductions in levelised costs are possible if the policy, regulatory, and licensing regimes are supportive.7 A lot more needs to be accomplished in these matters to clear much of the air which will automatically facilitate greater social acceptance of nuclear power. However, it is necessary to keep in mind that accidents or incidents may occur in the nuclear industry like in any other industry; the chances of misuse of nuclear knowhow are likely to remain; and the fear of nuclear technology falling into terrorists’ hands will persist. All this does not mean that there is no future role whatsoever for nuclear technology or nuclear energy. Partly, the fear of radioactive mutated monsters generated by anti-nuclear propaganda has turned the atomic dreams, and atomic nightmares into “one of the most powerful complexes of images ever created outside of religions”.8 And there is no easy solution to these fears except bringing abundant benefits out of nuclear energy to the people as early as possible, while addressing their concerns promptly.

The Threat Triangle

Especially in the aftermath of 9/11 and 3/11 (Fukushima nuclear disaster), safety, security, and safeguarding of nuclear material and technology has been a major global concern. Many assume that “catastrophic nuclear accidents are inevitable, because designers and risk modelers cannot envision all possible ways in which complex systems can fail”9 as there is no “absolute safety”; security measures can become obsolete as time passes; and misuse of technology is inevitable. Undoubtedly, “assuring safety is hard work” and “an obligation that demands constant attention”.10 However, to fathom “how much safe is safe enough” is probably the most stupendous task in the security discourse. There is also the view that risk is inherent in every industrial activity, including nuclear, but it can be made quite small. With proper management techniques, the security risks, proliferation hazards, and safety risks can be minimised to the extent that the benefits can outweigh the inherent risks. Noteworthy safety-security lapses continue to occur in every industrial sector around the globe, even in countries with extensive operational experience and strong regulatory capabilities. The world has not abandoned those industrial projects—rather, the focus has been to study what went wrong and try to fix it. Conversely, the case with the nuclear industry is strange.
Today, the nuclear industry is “suffering from the cumulative impacts of the world economic crisis, the Fukushima disaster, ferocious competitors and its own planning and management difficulties.”11 Which way the nuclear energy discourse will move is a matter of conjecture. Taking the middle position, this study advocates that safe nuclear power is possible and desirable. This could be a reality by a balanced understanding of technology-society correlation – if technology is misunderstood, development is missed, and if technology is uncontrolled, civilisation is at stake. The imperative is to make this correlation even-handed or objective. However, when both sets of issues (the efficacy of nuclear power as a viable source of energy, and the threat to the nuclear industry) are clubbed together, as everyone tends to do, nuclear technology becomes the subject of myriad controversies.
At the outset, it needs to be kept in mind that the threat to the nuclear industry emanates largely from the nature of the strategic environment. The 9/11 and terrorists activities have increased attention to ensure adequate security at nuclear installations. Clandestine nuclear programmes and technology transfer networks have warranted attention to ensure adequate safeguarding of nuclear materials. At the same time, nuclear accidents have long provided the justification for a particular emphasis on safe operations at nuclear power plants. The nuclear industry, therefore, is subject to intricacies and concerns of safety, security and safeguards. While safety is aimed at preventing accidents, security is aimed at preventing intentional acts that might harm the nuclear power plant or result in the theft of nuclear materials, and safeguards are aimed at preventing the diversion of nuclear materials for nuclear weapon purposes.12

Nuclear Safety

Like any other industrial enterprise, safety risks are inherent in every component of the nuclear industry: uranium mining, reprocessing, conversion, energy generation, waste management, and even at the decommissioning phase. According to the Safety Glossary of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), nuclear safety denotes “the achievement of proper operating conditions, prevention of accidents or mitigation of accident consequences, resulting in protection of workers, the public and the environment from undue radiation hazards”.13 This suggests that safety evaluations focus on the risks arising from unintended events initiated by natural phenomena (like earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, or flooding), internal hardware interruptions (such as fire, pipe breakage, or loss of electric power supply), or human mistakes (such as the incorrect application of procedures, or incorrect alignment of circuits). So, nuclear safety involves the designing, construction and operating of nuclear facilities to protect against the accidental release of radioactive material to the workers, the public or the environment. It also includes the responsibility to respond effectively to an incident or accident to minimise the radiological and other consequences.14 However, with adequate caution and management techniques, these can be effectively minimised.
Normally, every nuclear facility is designed and built to withstand postulated accidents (design-basis threat) without loss to the systems, structures and components necessary to ensure public health and safety.15 To ensure this, the basic requirement is adequate infrastructure as well as the commitment of the national government, the operator, regulator, vendor and other organisations, to achieve the best possible safety. This involves creation and application of excellent management, design and operation of the nuclear organisation, strictly as per the guidelines laid down.
Normally, the “defence-in-depth” concept is employed within the nuclear safety arena to lessen the frequency of trigger events; to prevent them from leading to more severe events; and to mitigate the consequences, if they occur. In addition, there is nurturing of a national “nuclear safety culture” (safety values and behaviours modelled by its leaders and internalised by the members involved, to make nuclear safety the overriding priority), an intangible concept based on a safety-conscious work environment, and collective responsibility to adhere to the safety principles is the cardinal virtue.16 A variety of international legal instruments, including conventions and codes of conduct and the IAEA safety standards, supplemented by IAEA safety support programmes, and a global network of experts constitute the global nuclear safety regime.

Nuclear Security

In the IAEA statute and publications, the term “nuclear security”is often abbreviated to “security”. However, a working definition of nuclear security, according to the IAEA Safety Glossary, is “the prevention and detection of...

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