Lanka develops nuclear capability

by Gamini WARUSHAMANA

Sri Lanka is ready to develop its nuclear capability in power generation to supply 10 percent of the base load of the country’s electricity supply, said the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Authority (AEA) Prof. W. Abeyewickreme.

Prof. W. Abeyewickreme

Following are excerpts from his interview with the Sunday Observer.

A new era of economic development has begun in the country and to achieve that goal a steady supply of power at competitive rates is essential. Else no investor will come here. Therefore, we will have to find viable and environment friendly methods of electricity generation and the best option is nuclear energy.

According to studies the demand for electricity grows double the rate of economic growth. We are planning double digit economic growth and therefore, we need to expand our electricity generating capacity. Renewable sources such as wind and solar have limitations. We have launched coal power generation at a time other countries are abandoning it. Therefore, we have to think of modern and sustainable electricity generating methods such as nuclear power. Applying science and technology at the appropriate time is essential for the economic development of the country.

Minister of Power and Energy officially told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna that Sri Lanka is keen to embark on nuclear energy development, at the 54th general conference of IAEA last month. Also last month, the cabinet approved the start up of feasibility studies. We have set up a steering committee with representatives from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Power and Energy, Ministry of External Affairs, AEA and the University of Moratuwa. The pre-feasibility study has already commenced. Feasibility studies will commence soon and will be concluded by 2012. The next step is the setting up of a separate unit in the CEB to carry forward the program.

If we launch a fast track program we could start nuclear power generation by 2020. The accepted timeframe for a developing country to complete a nuclear power project is between 10-15 years. The fastest nuclear power project completion has been done by Japan and it took seven years. Last year we submitted Sri Lanka’s country framework for nuclear technology use to IAEA and expressed our desire to develop the nuclear energy sector. Therefore, we now can begin the feasibility study and IAEA will fund the study. IAEA will also support us to develop our human resources in the field.

Nuclear plant in India

We need many training programs to develop nuclear experts and we invited all engineering universities to launch these programs. We help them to train the trainers and then the universities can introduce the courses in nuclear energy.

This is one of the key aspects in this program. For instance, Vietnam recently initiated a nuclear energy program and they have planned to train 2,000 experts. Whether we start the nuclear power generation program or not, these experts would be able to find jobs in the region or abroad, because the industry is growing rapidly.

South India will have six new nuclear plants in the future and there will be over 40 new nuclear plants in the Asia region. Nuclear technology is well developed today and the negative arguments regarding this technology is based on old experiences such as the accident in the Chernobyl power plant in Russia.

Today, we have automated technology which automatically shuts down the system in the event of a natural disaster, sabotage or human error.

Nuclear waste is no longer an issue in this industry because technology providers have packages including supply of nuclear energy and they also take back the waste, recycling and dumping them.

The fuel is provided in the form of encapsulated rods with safety. In addition, IAEA is also setting up a fuel bank to provide nuclear fuel, take back waste recycle and dump.

There are many countries that provide nuclear power technology: even India and China have the technology. Bangladesh recently launched its nuclear power program with Russian technology.