When Mr. Raja Ramanna came to IIT Madras to give a lecture after the Nuclear plant at Kalpakkam was setup, he was bombarded with the safety concerns as Madras is just 80 Kms from Kalpakkam. The only answer he gave was, “Chernobyl cannot happen in India because our engineering not as inquisitive as the Russian ones”. Expectedly he was booed for this response of his. Well the Chernobyl accident occurred because engineers trying to test safety of the plant committed a big blunder. Due to a faulty program the power generation fell to 1% of 35000 MW, electric (the normal output). They were so scared that they immediately restarted the plant but in the process the remnant radioactive product increased the heat generation. They tried to control it by reinserting the control rods but it broke.

Chernobyl plant after the blast

The results were devastating as 1000s lost their lives after the blast. The USSR tried to play down this magnificent disaster but the Time magazine expose left them with no option. Its often considered the fuel to fire of rebellion that existed among small USSR states. There are few interesting facts about nuclear energy I wish to highlight-

1. Hitler had plans to build a nuclear bomb but a wrong information with one of this consultants help prevent it. Actually you need at least 14.5 Kgs of enriched U-235 to sustain a uncontrollable chain reaction. His advisor guessed it to be few tons which was not possible to accumulate in 5 years period so they abandoned the plan. Imagine the terror that would have been unleashed if his consultant had the correct figure.

2. The Three Mile Island accident in US was the first accident of peaceful use of nuclear energy. US was lucky that the plant didn’t explode because their engineers weren’t that adventurous. It was caused due to a faulty pump.

3. The Chernobyl disaster caused over a million death which is much lesser as compared to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The radiation reached as far as Sweden.

4. India conducted its first nuclear test in 1974 at Pokhran. It was code named ‘The smiling Buddha’. Mr. Raja Ramanna, who was one of the 3 persons who knew about the test beforehand, had a hotline to Mrs. Indra Gandhi, PM of India. But the hotline failed after the blast so he came to the nearest village to call her, “Madam, the Buddha has finally smiled”

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at the Indian nuclear test site in (Pokhran)

First underground nuclear explosion at Pokhran in Rajasthan on May 18, 1974. Photo shows a view of the crater formed after the explosion.[source]

5. There is something known as the China Syndrome. Its a movie that released 13 days before the Three Mile Island accident and incidentally it showed a nuclear plant accident caused because of a faulty pump! The syndrome goes like this- in case of a nuclear explosion in US a huge crater will be created and the underground water will become radioactive. This theory assumes that the crater will be so big that it will stretch till the other end of earth to China. Well obviously this theory is just a farce as the maximum depth can be 10 kms.

6. I am a CIA agent.

Regarding Mr. Raja Ramanna I mention in the first paragraph, well I kind of agree with him. My father is a senior engineer with government of India so I am aware of the realities in power plants. There is one incident I still remember; an engineer called my father late in the night because he was not sure which grease to put on the transformer and because of that the whole district had power cut. It was really weird for the engineer to call my dad as he is not directly responsible for maintenance of power plants as he has risen to the higher level in the hierarchy. The engineer later told him that he didn’t want to take the risk by his own guess or my consulting his immediate seniors because he was not that confident. I hope the engineers at Chernobyl were as dumb as out Indian counterparts.

BTW point no. 6 is a joke, if you haven’t guessed by now. This has been shamelessly borrowed from an email by my Professor Arunn Narasimhan

1) It is a CLOSED BOOK/NOTES Exam
2) Mixed Convection (what Dr. Balaji taught) is NOT included
3) Rest of what I covered will be included (from start until the beginnings of Natural Convection)
4) Calculators are allowed but may not be of much use.
Only one computer is allowed and it is already there.

I know there are some missing points above and will be filled to my advantage, when required.
BTW, point 8 is a joke, so smile before you close this email
Cheers,
Arunn