Nuclear Power Plant Categories and Visit to Kaiga

The unfortunate incident of earthquake followed by tsunami and the aftereffect - blasts of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant - brought back my memories of a visit to Kaiga Nuclear Power plant. Back in 1998, during my high school days in Sirsi, I had an opportunity to visit Kaiga plant as part of an excursion. That time, Kaiga had not started operation. One unit was ready but the other one was still under construction. (Now, there are 2 more units, constructed later). Public could go inside them. (Inside visiting is strictly prohibited to public now.) We hired a KSRTC bus and visited Kaiga, Kadra dam and came back to Sirsi, after spending sometime in Karwar beach.

There were guides to take the visitors to a tour and explain nuclear power generation process and different units - reactor, container, generator, transformer, and so on ... I can't remember in detail now but I do remember the big pipes to transport Uranium and the place where it would be split. Listening to the guide, we were scared as to what happens if anything goes wrong when in production.

Kaiga power plant produces 880 MW of power, making it the third largest Nuclear power plant in India. It is based on PHWR (Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor) technology which uses heavy water as coolant. This is more efficient in terms of fuel burning and also in terms of cooling requirements than BWR. BWR (Boiling Water Reactor), the other known technology for nuclear plants, requires demineralized light water as coolant. It requires cooling for many days even after shut down. Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is based on BWR. The damage caused to the Fukushima Daiichi plant got worsened after the first blast due to pouring in of sea water, which, ofcourse, was not demineralized. The plant was not designed to handle this mineralized water coolant and hence there were subsequent blasts and damage followed by radiation leaks. Two reasons, one, BWR plants require many days of cooling even after shut down, two, shortage of light water (demineralized water) and usage of sea water for cooling were prominent for its subsequent heating.

Fortunately, out of 6 nuclear power plants in India, only Tarapur plant has 2 units of BWR and the rest are PHWR. So, damage will be less in case of any natural catastrophes. Atleast after shut down, these do not pose any threat of heating up. (Radiation leakage is ofcourse has to be taken care irrespective of types)

Innocent Ones Arrested?

I shall ask you one prominent question about American Police. I meant, your idea about Indian rural police and American rural police. Whom do you think better of the two? Ok, you will have a better answer after reading this.

Recently I was reading "The Innocent Man", by John Grisham. It was not as I expected it to be. Though, a thriller, its pace was slow. I skipped half the book and went to the last sections which was, to my surprise, authors note. I followed his note and came to know that the book was a real story. After reading it, my opinion of American Police changed!

On december 1982, there was a rape followed by murder in Ada, a small town in US. The girl was Debbie Carter who happened to had no rivals at all. The police could not find the real killer and arrested and charged a man named Ron Williamson only because a guy named Glen Gore told the police that he was there with her on the night in the club Coachlight, even though there were witnesses who saw Gore dropped by near her apartment late in the evening, on the same date. Dennis Fritz was also charged only because he used to go to bars with Ron. The police had blood and hair as evidence and they didn't match with either Ron or Fritz.

A year and a half later, a woman named Denise Haraway disappeared mysteriously. A boy named Tommy Ward was arrested considering Haraway was murdered and disposed by him only because someone described two boys with a young lady and one of the boys description matched Tommy Ward's. The point was the description which caused to arrest Tommy Ward was matching almost half the boys in the town. And after questioning him continuously for eight and a half hours, that was unrecorded, he was exhausted answering to questions he never knew. Finally he confessed saying he dreamt of something like murder only so that he could tell the truth in the court and to get relaxed for the moment. He could never relax in his life!

Karl Fontenot arrested only since he was Tommy's friend and he too was made to confess. Even though their confessions conflicted on the way Haraway was murdered, the police claim they were the killers and the police don't have any clue or evidence!

Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot are still serving behind the bars. Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz were released in 1999 as they were proved to be innocent by DNA test.

Indian police, in my opinion, may not be able to find the killers quickly but they would not file charges on innocent ones. Answer to above question now.

Statement of John Grisham

"It is an intriguing and horrifying story: the story of the dream that got Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot convicted. Karl and Tommy deserve attention and help. I encourage anyone with any information about this case to send it to their attorney. It is important to learn from this nightmare. It is also important that this nightmare somehow be unraveled."

For more details, please read "The innocent man - By John Grisham" and visit http://www.wardandfontenot.com/. Even if you google it, now you will get numerous sites about the tales.