Tsunami, a natural disaster, has done what human beings could not have done at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima.
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"Not even I can do any harm to nuclear reactors," declared the chief technical officer at Diiachi's nuclear plant four years ago when journalists from Asian countries visited the plant as part of climate change awareness programme of the Japanese government.
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"Everything is controlled by computers. Even a small error triggers the system, which automatically switches off the system ending any possibility of the radiation leak," the official said, while showcasing the reactor safety aspects on a simulator and a proto-type of the main reactor at the office of the Tokyo Electric Power Company.
It was a chilly December 2007 morning with snowflakes providing a blanket to the reactors. Then, we were made to walk down the prototype with each process of the reactor explained in detail.
The visit appeared convincing on safety aspects even as I saw number of homes close to the installation. A thought about the residents' safety in case of leakage from reactors hit me.
But, the official's powerful presentation over-powered the thought. Now, I see the thought has become a reality in such a short span of time.
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Our two-hour visit was restricted to main office and a bus tour of the reactors explaining how the plant works.
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Our two-hour visit was restricted to main office and a bus tour of the reactors explaining how the plant works.
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The reactors in chambers were as high as a skyscraper and were spread in an area almost equal to a soccer field.
The possible devastation they can pose has now become clear with the news of radiation expected to reach Russia and United States and its devastating impact on mankind.
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.
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Get the latest headlines from US news and global updates from Pakistan, Nepal, UK, Bangladesh, Russia and US Iran war Live, get all the latest headlines in one place on Hindustan Times.
