With Nuclear Rebirth Come New Worries

Tuesday 15 January 2008

In China, for instance, thousands die annually in the world's most dangerous coal mines and thousands more in fires, explosions and other accidents often blamed on insufficient safety equipment and workers ignoring safety rules.

...Separately, China and India shared 70th place in the 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index, published by the Transparency International think tank that ranked 163 nations, with the least corrupt first and the most last. Vietnam occupied the 111th spot, and Indonesia - which, like Hanoi, wants to build a nuclear reactor - came in 130th.

By George Jahn
The Associated Press

Vienna, Austria - Global warming and rocketing oil prices are making nuclear power fashionable, drawing a once demonized industry out of the shadows of the Chernobyl disaster as a potential shining knight of clean energy.

However, some countries hopping on the nuclear bandwagon have abysmal industrial safety records and corrupt ways that give many pause for thought.

Of the more than 100 nuclear reactors now being built, planned or on order, about half are in China, India and other developing nations. Argentina, Brazil and South Africa plan to expand existing programs; and Vietnam, Thailand, Egypt and Turkey are among the countries considering building their first reactors.

The Swedish operators of a German reactor came under fire last summer for delays in informing the public about a fire at the plant. And a potentially disastrous partial breakdown of a Bulgarian nuclear plant's emergency shutdown mechanism in 2006 went unreported for two months until whistle-blowers made it public.

The revival, the International Atomic Energy Agency projects, means that nuclear energy could nearly double within two decades to 691 gigawatts - 13.3 percent of all electricity generated.

Philippe Jamet, director of nuclear installation safety at the International Atomic Energy Agency, describes the industry's record as "second to none." Still, he says that countries new to or still learning about nuclear power "have to move down the learning curve, and they will learn from (their) mistakes."

But the agency is already stretched with monitoring Iran and North Korea over their suspected nuclear arms programs, and IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei says his organization cannot be the main guarantor of safety. The primary responsibility, he says, rests with the operators of a nuclear facility and their government.

In China, for instance, thousands die annually in the world's most dangerous coal mines and thousands more in fires, explosions and other accidents often blamed on insufficient safety equipment and workers ignoring safety rules.

A Finnish study published in 2005 said India's annual industrial fatality rate is 11.4 people per 100,000 workers and the accident rate 8,700 per 100,000 workers. Overall, Asian nations excluding China and India have an average industrial accident fatality rate of 21.5 per 100,000 and an accident rate of over 16,000 per 100,000 workers, says the report, by the Tampere University of Technology in Finland. The study lists a fatality rate of 5.2 people per 100,000 for the United states and 3 per 100,000 for France.

Separately, China and India shared 70th place in the 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index, published by the Transparency International think tank that ranked 163 nations, with the least corrupt first and the most last. Vietnam occupied the 111th spot, and Indonesia - which, like Hanoi, wants to build a nuclear reactor - came in 130th.

"Are there special concerns about the developing world? The answer is definitely yes," said Carl Thayer, a Southeast Asia expert with the Australian Defence Force Academy.

Corrupt officials in licensing and supervisory agencies in the region could undermine the best of IAEA guidelines and oversight, Thayer said.

"There could be a dropping of standards, and that affects all aspects of the nuclear industry, from buying the material, to processing applications to building and running the plant."

Issues of national pride may also come up.

A Vienna-based diplomat whose portfolio includes nuclear issues told the AP that in the 1990s the Canadian government offered India troubleshooting information for its reactors, but the Indians "did not want to know about it." The diplomat, who demanded anonymity in exchange for discussing confidential information, said: "It reflected the attitude that national pride is more important than safety."

The AP's efforts to obtain Indian official comment were unsuccessful.

Permanent storage of radioactive waste - which can remain toxic for tens of thousands of years - is another major problem, as is shutting nuclear plants that are no longer safe.

In China, permanent dump sites are not expected to be operational before 2040, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Energy. So for now, China - like India - stores the waste in temporary sites, usually close to reactors, where it is more vulnerable to theft and poses a greater environmental danger.

Nuclear proponents say new generations of reactors now on the drawing board come with better fail-safe mechanisms and fewer moving parts. But even some of these supporters are skeptical about creating the foolproof reactor.

Hans-Holger Rogner, head of the IAEA's planning and economic studies section, says he is "suspicious when people say the next (reactor) generation will be safer than the one we have."

Associated Press writers Elaine Kurtenbach in Beijing, Muneeza Naqvi in New Delhi and Ben Stocking in Hanoi, Vietnam, contributed to this report.

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