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Nuclear and Hydro Power
Published in Anco S. Blazev, Energy Security for The 21st Century, 2021
The latest such conflict was observed in a village near one of the newest nuclear plants, the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in India. Some of the villagers have been protesting for years, until a fringe group supporting the plant attacked them in the summer of 2014.
Thermal Power Generation
Published in T.M. Aggarwal, Environmental Control in Thermal Power Plants, 2021
Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant under construction in 2009. It was 96% complete as of March 2011, with first phase expected to be in use in 2012. With initial installed capacity of 2 GW, this plant will be expanded to 6.8 GW capacity.
Passions of Power and the “Tryst with Destiny”
Published in Manu V. Mathai, Nuclear Power, Economic Development Discourse and the Environment, 2013
In its National Action Plan on Climate Change, the Government of India asserts that nuclear power offers energy security, environmental benefits and greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation (Government of India, 2008). One might, perhaps cynically, dismiss such justifications as a cover for the real intention of legitimizing international nuclear commerce with India in an effort to divert India’s limited domestic uranium resources to the weapons program. But the fact is that the government is pursuing both options, albeit with different levels of success. The weapons program is on course to establish the triad of sea, land and air missile delivery capabilities deemed essential for the credibility of India’s “no first use” nuclear weapons doctrine. On the other hand, the civilian nuclear program has little to show for the six decades of unstinting state patronage it has enjoyed. It remains at approximately 3 percent of India’s total installed power generation capacity. Past failures notwithstanding, the government appears to be in a hurry to dramatically expand nuclear power capacity to anything between 275 GW and 450 GW (depending on which government projection or press statement one looks at) by the mid-twenty-first century. In its first term, the government headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh staked its survival to enter into a politically contentious civilian nuclear agreement with the United States. During its second term, and while working on plans to rapidly expand nuclear power capacity, such as the six-reactor, 10 GW Jaitapur Atomic Power Plant, the same government just about blinked in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami-induced three reactor core meltdowns at Fukushima Dai-ichi in Japan. It insisted that nuclear power expansion must press ahead in India, a country that is more densely populated than Japan and far more spontaneous, argumentative, and less technologically regimented in its culture and polity. In a recent lecture, the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, R. Chidambaram, reportedly noted that India’s nuclear program was “safe in terms of design, operation, regulatory mechanisms and in observance of safety culture.” In reference to protests against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, Chidambaram noted, during the same lecture, that fears over the project were needless, as “it would be like stopping to eat food for the fear of choking or stop eating fish for the fear of bones getting stuck in the throat” (The Hindu, 2012). How is such faith in and commitment to nuclear power sustained, despite the vast body of credible, rigorous and rational reasoning and lived experience, for being much more circumspect? I argue that it comes from the worldview of a post-colonial nation, informed by long-standing articulations of meanings and practices of modernity, that was adopted and institutionalized by the political and technocratic elite to legitimize and affect the project of modernizing India.
Effect of different dosage of gamma irradiation on quasi-solid-state conducting polymer electrolyte and its application as high performance dye-sensitized solar cells
Published in Radiation Effects and Defects in Solids, 2021
K. M. Manikandan, A. Yelilarasi
The conducting polymer electrolyte samples were exposed to γ-ray irradiation at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) Gamma Auto Irradiation System, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India. Cesium-137 (Cs137) was used as the γ-ray irradiation source of energy 0.662 MeV. The absorbed dose rate is 385 mGy h−1. The electrolytes were exposed to the different dose of gamma radiation for 48 h at room temperature and also maintained with a 1012 mbar normal atmospheric pressure. FT-IR spectra are analyzed to identify the functional groups of the sample using a Perkin Elmer Spectrum Version 10.03.09 FTIR spectrometer in the wave number region 400–4000 cm−1. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns are recorded using the PANalytical X’Pert PRO powder X-ray Diffractometer with a scanning rate of 2 deg min−1. The absorption spectra of different polymer electrolytes are taken with a Shimadzu Model UV-1601scanning double beam UV–visible spectrophotometer. The electrical conductivity (σ) of the sample is calculated using a DEP-02 model four-probe instrument. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is computed using a computer-embedded electrochemical analyzer CH Instrument, TX, USA. The photocurrent density–voltage (J–V) curves of the cells are recorded by a Keithley electrometer under irradiation (100 mW cm−2) of 300 W Xenon lamp source (Oriel, USA).