The intense earthquake followed by devastating tsunami in Japan has taken a massive toll of human life. This natural calamity of enormous proportions is estimated to have taken the lives of some 10,000 people in that country, while the number of those who are in relief camps, having lost their homes and loved ones, is about 30000. Japan is facing a huge humanitarian crisis with shortage of food and water.

It is doubly tragic that the devastation has been compounded by nuclear explosions in two of Japan’s nuclear power plants, with the threat of another meltdown hovering over a third. Japan is the bearer of the grim legacy of the nuclear holocausts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Once again this time, the people of Japan will undergo the trauma and tragedy of nuclear disaster. At this hour of grave crisis, the worst since the WWII devastation, the people of India stand wholeheartedly by the people of Japan and share their grief and tragedy.

For us in India and in fact for the whole world, the tragedy of Japan should also serve as an urgent wake-up call about the unpredictability and inherent dangers of nuclear technology. It must be remembered that Japan, after all, has what was said to be the best quake-resistant nuclear technology in the world. Their preparedness and response for natural disasters too is second to none in the world. Yet, in the wake of the quake and tsunami this time, they were unable to avert explosions in their nuclear power facilities and the resultant radiation leaks which are likely to have grievous long-term consequences.

If this is the case in Japan with its superior technological expertise and preparedness, it is alarming to imagine the consequences of a similar situation in a country like India, which is not known for its prompt or effective response to disasters or for effective regulatory and safety mechanisms in any sector. Questions are rightly being raised about the safety of existing nuclear installations in India, as well as about the advisability of expansion to fresh projects like the proposed project at Jaitapur, Maharashtra. Jaitapur is known to be in a seismic zone, and is on the coastline. India has already suffered one tsunami, which reportedly caused damage to the nuclear plant at Kalpakkam.

The Maharashtra Government has promptly got former Atomic Energy Commission Chairperson Anil Kakodkar to give a presentation to the state Assembly, at which he assured that existing nuclear plants were safe, and that the Jaitapur plant was safe from a tsunami. On what basis can Kakodkar make such a declaration? He speculates that Jaitapur’s elevation makes a tsunami ’unlikely.’ But natural calamities are calamities precisely because they strike without clear warning, and preparedness and precaution consist in factoring in the ’unlikely’!

Kakodkar tells us there is “no need to doubt” reactors of the government-owned French company Areva, which are to be commissioned at Jaitapur. How can Kakodkar vouch for the Areva design, which is known to be new and untested anywhere in the world? The unseemly haste with which such assurances are being touted is highly irresponsible, and must not be allowed to divert the country’s attention from the demand for a thorough review of India’s existing nuclear facilities and the proposals for further expansion.

The Prime Minister has promised both houses of Parliament that a review will be conducted to “ensure that (India’s) nuclear reactors would be able to withstand the impact of large natural disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes.” The question is, how can we be sure that this review will be impartial, given that India lacks any independent nuclear regulatory body? The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board in India is subservient to and answerable to the very institution it is supposed to regulate - the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE)! Regulatory processes are shrouded in secrecy and the Indian public are restricted by draconian legislation like the Indian Atomic Energy Act 1962 even from asking questions.

A Gopalakrishnan, former chairman, AERB has pointed out that the “collusion” between the PMO, the Indian nuclear establishment and corporate houses in the wake of the Indo-US Nuke Deal, and opined that the “continuity of this closeness between corporate houses interested in nuclear power and the concerned supervisory government agencies is distorting and damaging the independent government decisions to be taken in the public interest, whether it be in the choice of import of reactors and their cost, the environmental impact of such imported reactors or their potential deficiencies and dangers.”

We have seen how Union Carbide-Dow succeeded in influencing government and even judicial processes at Bhopal. We have also seen how so-called regulatory bodies in the case of Bt Brinjal and soft drink industry were infiltrated in a big way by people who were on the payroll of the very same MNCs like Monsanto, Coke, Pepsi etc that they were supposed to assess and regulate! The Nuke Liability Bill passed by Parliament as it is bore the marks of severe pressure by the US nuclear industry backed by the US Government. This legislation means that in the event of a nuclear disaster in India, the lion’s share of the costs of clean-up and repair will be borne by India while the human cost of life and health will be borne, as at Bhopal, by the Indian people.

Japan reminds us that the scale of a nuclear disaster is likely to be far more vast and far-reaching than other industrial disasters. If the pressures of corporate and MNC interests as well as the UPA Government’s commitments to the US or France are allowed to influence the review process, then the fallout could well turn out to be devastation and disaster borne by the people of India. It is therefore absolutely urgent and imperative that a thorough and independent, time-bound review and reassessment take place of India’s existing nuclear installations, and a moratorium declared forthwith on all future nuclear projects in India including the one at Jaitapur.