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India sets up nuclear safety research body

India today became the only country, after France, to set up a nuclear safety research institute under an independent body, with the inauguration of the Safety Research Institute at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research at Kalpakkam, near Madras.

The SRI, slated to function under the auspices of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, is an essential part of the country's nuclear research programme, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Dr R Chidambaram, who inaugurated the institute, said.

The Kalpakkam complex was the right location for SRI as it had a unique range of several facilities pertaining to the nuclear fuel cycle including the two Madras Atomic Power Stations, the Fast Breeder Test Reactor, the Kamini reactor using U-233 fuel, fuel reprocessing plants and waste management laboratories, he pointed out.

AERB chairman Prof P Rama Rao said SRI would conduct research on safety aspects of nuclear facilities at design and operation stages and assess and monitor their environmental impact, apart from evolving a data base on safety codes and standards. Projects were underway with several institutions including Indian Institutes of Technology at Madras and Bombay, he added.

He said SRI would be able to evolve a rich data base from the experience of 140 reactor-years in the country's nuclear reactors and facilitate fullscale regulatory decision-making.

A number of scientists in IGCAR and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre were working on Probabilistic Safety Assessment of nuclear power plants. SRI was expected to coordinate these research efforts and also establish a national code depository, he added.

UNI

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