Public Education During Commissioning and Operation of a Nuclear Power Plant in India

摘要

The scientific advancement comes with an increased risk and mitigation of risk is a challenging aspect. The scenario of educating the public on nuclear issue is all together a different domain of focus. India with its tremendous manpower needs a giant leap in power production which necessitates construction of nuclear power projects. But still with 60 years of nuclear power research and development in India, the public acceptance to the nuclear power growth is not satisfactory. It is important to address the concerns of public and in this regard, public education regarding nuclear power plant establishment is highly relevant. Even though India is adopting advanced Generation Ⅲ reactors, the public education should become a necessity rather than sufficiency. In this paper, we divide the education to the public into two categories depending on the stages of construction of nuclear power plant namely before and after the construction of the plant. The aspect of public education after site selection till commissioning of the plant is indeed challenging because of various geo-political issues, less awareness about nuclear technology amongst people, land acquisition and many more. The public education carried after the construction of the plant is highlighted and is a necessary factor in achieving desirable targets. The several detrimental effects of lack of public education is taken into consideration. The dependence of plant progress with public perception on nuclear hazard is analysed. By illustrating commemorative work carried out by Public Awareness Committee of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) at various power stations in India, we suggest some measures for effective implementation of power projects with focus on public education. The paper presents some real time cases of impact of public education regarding construction of plant.