“Three Mile Island” incident of India

Arun Leave a comment

I read about three mile island incident couple of months ago and how that one incident stopped the whole nuclear power initiative of being a major source of power generation in USA.

When I was reading that – I realized the similarity between 70s of USA and current phase of India. It’s an interesting phase for a country which has initiated many infrastructure related projects and is very optimistic about those projects playing a big role in their growth story.
So, a three mile island project of USA in my opinion could be what “Delhi Metro” or “Golden Quadrilateral” or “Dream of being energy independent” is to India.
One more thing I realized was that USA has very stringent safety laws about these infrastructure projects (i guess those must be in 70s too) for everything, especially as compared to India. So – in spite of all those measures in place – the three mile accident happened!
Compare that to current situation in India where thousand of infrastructure projects are undergoing in all direction. The safety measures I dont know are how much stringent and how much followed. So isnt probability of a three mile similar incident happening in India now is much more that than that happening in US in 70s?? (I can only pray that such an event doesnt happen and our government has learned from all such infra accidents, including the one which we had too…like Bhopal Gas Tragedy) But no matter how much precaution the government takes, I guess a three mile incident is waiting to happen in a country of more than a billion people working in all directions.
It is just a matter of time – maybe in 1 year, in 5 years or in 10 years – but I am not sure if it is avoidable in these scenarios.
Here I do not mean a “nuclear accident” per se … but I mean any kind of infrustructure related accident … like the one which happened today in Delhi Metro.
After such an event, manytimes our focus is on the immediate loss of lifes which is undoubtedly natural and important … However, in my opinion, one big loss is the repercurssion of such event. The aftermath effects on the project – like the loss of resources. The loss of confidence in that project – both by goverment (who is paying for it) and people like me (who are going to use that infrastructure). The loss of a dream of a better future and facing reality again that maybe things will go back to where it was on the first place.
To effectively demonstrate those repercursions, read below excerpt of the effect of three mile accident on nuclear industry in US, taken from wikipedia.
Also, on a closing note – I just wish something like doesnt happen on any infrastructure related project in India.

Effect on nuclear power industry

Global history of the use of nuclear power. The Three Mile Island accident is one of the factors cited for the decline of new reactor construction.

According to the IAEA, the Three Mile Island accident was a significant turning point in the global development of nuclear power [49]. From 1963 to 1979, the number of reactors under construction globally increased every year except 1971 and 1978. However, following the event, the number of reactors under construction declined every year from 1980 to 1998. Many similar Babcock and Wilcox reactors on order were canceled — in total, 51 American nuclear reactors were canceled from 1980 to 1984.[50]

Manmohan Singh is King!! :)

Arun 2 Comments

I will start this post quoting last lines from my last post –

PS – as a closing note, I feel UPA (congress) will have good majority, and it will be less chaotic than last time… and congress will be in a better position to rule. (I am thinking 230 seats for UPA, plus 30 support from outside) …. let’s see if my prediction comes close to the real thing on saturday/sunday.

It is 2:30am at USA (12pm in India), I am watching CNN-IBN Election 2009 Live Coverage + following NDTV votemap and trying to understand and observe the trend in election results of 2009.

This is truly history in making and a historical “Judgement day” for India, I cannot afford to sleep today.

As I expected it looks like UPA is leading on 240 seats, and it is almost confirmed to have support from 4th front… and hence confirmed to form government.

(Updated@ 5/16 2:30pm – It is now 12 hours since I am following the results, it is now 2:30 pm here in US and 12am in India, I made above comment yesterday night after which I went to sleep at 6-7am in the morning.

At this moment, all results are almost out and looks like UPA will get 260 seats, just 10 seats short of majority, which as we all know will be easily fillled up by others/4th front … superb!! amazing!!)

I am jubilant!! The last time I was this happy was maybe a year ago when Left tried to topple the government on issue of Nuclear Energy and congress came back stronger.

There are many things that I am pretty much excited about seeing this result and the trend following –

  • “Leadership” is now an important factor to win Indian Elections!

    In fact, I will not be wrong if I go to the extent to say that it is the single most factor to win elections in India now

    • 1st Example – In my opinion, BJP won in 1999, only because BJP led NDA had a good leadership in terms of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. (as opposed to Congress of that time who were fighting among themselves, let alone think about leading a country like India)
    • 2nd Example – fast forward to 2009, Congress pulled all its act together in last 10 years and now they have a good leader – Manmohan Singh and not only that Congress has a young/clean/likeable future leader “Rahul Gandhi” which as we all know is going to play bigger role in coming times.

      • I think “leadership” plays a very critical factor now in Indian Voter’s subconscious, although it may not be very much obvious.
  • India is turning out to be a very unique democratic system of Bi-Polar but still multiparty system
    • This is second most interesting thing!! … this is opposed to strictly biparty system in USA or themultiparty system (of chaos & coalition) in India we saw for last 10 years.
    • To substantiate this, we can clearly see Conrgess and BJP comings as the two major parties in the election results on all 2-3 past elections… and all other smaller parties sticking to them.

      • So, unless either of these two biggies mess up themselves in big way, they are gonna rule us in times to come.
      • I predict that these two parties systems will continue to come in power alternatively every 5-10 years from now onwards. (depending on performance of government)
      • This arrangement will keep the ruling government on toes and make them perform and make them inclusive and not try to divide India.
    • In my opinion, it is good that we dont have clearly demarcated two party system in India because this way, in current system, if both the parties are not performing or not providing leadership required … India can go ahead and check any 3rd alternative, 4th alternative and so on … that is what we did around 1998 and although the result was disaster but I think that gave Indian political parties the much needed shock therapy to improve and reinvent themselves.
  • Good Governance and Development is In + Left (dumb) ideologies are out (Communism is out?)
    • I was expecting (and hoping) for a result like this, where left will be thrown out. It shows many things –
      • India will not let party or people whose only mandate is to keep blackmailing the government, especially on development issues. (Indian voters will not let them get away with it.)
      • Energy reforms are here to stay. Nuclear Energy is the future.
      • Development of India needs to be top of mandate for any party who wants to come to power
        • Another example for this is Nitish Kumar who has sweeped Bihar, whom I am hearing is doing good job in Bihar..
      • WB sweep out of Left is the single most surprising thing I have seen in Indian politics ever!!!!

Lastly, as I was searching youtube to find a tribute/fan video on Dr. Manmohan Singh, I couldnt find any. So, I created one tribute video of my own. Enjoy!!