Nuclear energy also mulled:

Cheaper power, a reality soon

By Shirajiv SIRIMANE

"Sri Lanka has highest electricity tariff in region" "CEB losses run in to billions".

These are some of the headlines which regularly appear in the media and these have not been denied to date.

The Sunday Observer spoke to the Minister concerned, Patali Champika Ranawaka, who confirmed that these were true. When asked for the reason, he had one simple answer.

"Sri Lanka has not built a single power plant from 1990 to 2006". Due to this the country depended heavily on diesel power generation which is very costly.

"The arithmetic is simple...the cost of a unit of power was Rs. 17.51 and the CEB sells it to the public at Rs. 13".

In addition, the CEB is also owed billions of rupees from many government institutions while illegal power tapping too accounts for the institution to run on a red bill.

"The time has come to change this cycle," the Minister said.

The Tricastin Nuclear Power Plant is one of the 59 French power plants that provide 75 percent of the country's electricity.

Norochcholai Power plant

Upper Kotmale Power Plant

He said the Government has identified the prime reason for the crisis in the CEB and has decided to construct power plants which were earlier confined to the drafting stage.

One such project which has got off the ground and is nearing completion is the Upper Kotmale Power Plant.

Bold political decisions are needed by a developing country to surge ahead in development and since the country a gained independence, sadly this has been a gray area.

Whenever a major development project ran in to controversy, political leaders would ignore it and concentrate on a different project in a bid to maintain their popularity with the voters.

This was the pattern that was followed for decades. It was President Mahinda Rajapaksa who changed this political culture, placing development ahead of anything else.

However, being a true leader of the people, he studied these controversial projects carefully and brought about changes before implementing them. He even went to the extent of cancelling some of them; the relocation of the Weerawila international airport to Mattala was one classic example.

The Upper Kotmale Hydro Power Plant was to be launched in 1985 and due to the controversy successive political leaders ignored the project. However, after the proposal was studied more carefully and some environmental changes made to the project, it got off the ground and is expected to be opened by next January. Over 80 percent of the project is now completed.

Japanese and Sri Lankan engineers have created a 25-hectare reservoir across the Kotmale Oya and a 35.5 metre tall and 180 metre long dam is being built across it.

Environmental effects

Environmentalists said the implementation of the project would result in earthquakes in the hill country and waterfalls running dry. Opposition politicians too, as usual, capitalised on the controversy, which delayed the launch of the project.

The President negotiated with the Japan International Cooperation Agency and secured US $ 297 million on a 30-year long-term credit, ironing out the other gray area of the project. The Government invested a further US $ 87 million, making the project a reality. This project would generate 150 megawatts of power.

Today with the project nearing completion, the myths behind it have died a natural death.

Two other controversial projects, Norochcholai and Sampur Coal Power Plants, too have got off the ground. The former will start producing power in January.

The other project to get off the ground and the first stage to be opened is the Kerawalapitiya Power Plant.

In addition, improvements being effected in the other power plants would enable the CEB to switch from high cost power generation methods to cheaper modes of power generation.

The Minister said they are also seriously considering using nuclear power to produce electricity.

An electrical engineer himself, the Minister feels that this would be the future of local power generation.

"Nuclear power generation is nothing new to the region. Tamil Nadu is already successfully using it," he said.

However he admitted that this is not something that can be put in to place immediately. "It needs a lot of planning and the mindset of the public too should be changed before we even think of constructing a nuclear power plant," he said.

Minister Ranawaka said that one advantage is that nuclear deposits are available for 100 years. The main reason to explore this is the cheap cost of power generation. "However, I must admit that it is initially costly, but Sri Lanka can afford it as this will be implemented after at least five years," he said.

Pre-feasibility studies are expected to be completed this year followed by several other studies to find the suitable location. On the risk of having a nuclear plant in Sri Lanka, he said Sri Lanka is already in the risk radius as Tamil Nadu has a plant.

"Before the country considers putting up a nuclear plant, we will launch programs to explain to the public the benefits of nuclear energy. "Though there is terrorism in Pakistan, to-date there have been no incidents related to their nuclear facilities while it is the same in other countries as well," he said.

The Minister said they are looking at purchasing nuclear chemicals from Russia and sending back the waste material for them to dispose safely. "Germany has introduced nuclear pebbles which are not harmful to dispose," he said.

By the time Sri Lanka builds a plant, new methods and innovations would have been introduced, making nuclear energy even safer. He said, "Today, with nano technology in place, chances for errors are minimised. This is why, in the modern world, nuclear disasters are a thing of the past".

He explained that local technicians have to be trained to man nuclear power plants while sophisticated machinery too would have to be used.

Just as many conventional thermal power stations generate electricity by harnessing the thermal energy released from burning fossil fuels, nuclear power plants convert the energy released from the nucleus of an atom, typically via nuclear fission.

Thermal energy

A cooling system removes heat from the reactor core and transports it to another area of the plant, where the thermal energy can be harnessed to produce electricity or to perform other useful tasks.

He pointed out that they were looking at wind and solar power generation, but are not too keen to implement them on a large-scale as storage is very expensive. "The generated power has to be stored in batteries and this process is very expensive," he said.

"However, we are looking at generating power from dendro, paddy husks and waste more seriously," he said. The Minister who is back from a World Congress on Nuclear Energy in Vienna had the opportunity to study the subject in detail and also the chance to share some of the experiences of other countries especially Pakistan and India.

In 2009, 13-14 percent of the world's electricity came from nuclear power. More than 150 naval vessels using nuclear propulsion have been built.

As of December 2009, the world had 436 nuclear reactors. Since the production of commercial nuclear energy began in the mid-1950s, 2008 was the first year that no new nuclear power plant was connected to the grid, although two were connected in 2009.

The United States produces the most nuclear energy, with nuclear power providing 19 percent of the electricity it consumes, while France produces the highest percentage of its electrical energy from nuclear reactors-80 percent in 2006.

In the European Union nuclear energy provides 30 percent of the electricity.

Many military and some civilian (such as icebreakers) ships use nuclear marine propulsion, a form of nuclear propulsion.