First of all, congratulation to the current government for coming clean from the acid test named Nuclear Deal. From past many days, we have been hearing about the Nuclear Deal and the political dram it invoked consistently on the various news channels. There have been numerous comments, discussions and blogs written on this subject, some supporting the deal and some against. But none on the Nuclear Waste, a free gift of Nuclear Energy.
No doubt, the growing Indian economy needs energy which the today's thermal power plants and coal plants will not be able to provide when compared to the Nuclear Energy, but as per some experts developing this technology will at least take around 10 years. This means by the time we have the Nuclear Energy, the demand for energy would be 100 times more. No doubt, the Nuclear Energy can meet this demand within the shortest period of time but what about the waste created while generating energy.
This is no normal waste, this is Nuclear Waste and it cannot be just dumped anywhere.
Why it cannot be dumped anywhere?
The reason for this is that the Nuclear Waste keeps emitting radiation for many years depending upon the half life of the radioactive material. This radiation will render the area (earth surface or sea bed) useless for any type of habitation. It also brings about genetical changes (if any living organism get exposed to it on a long term basis) that will leave the future generation suffering from various diseases for which the medical science will not have any effective answer. The newest threat being is its use as a Dirty Bomb by insurgent groups.
Today the major problem faced by developed nations using Nuclear Power as a means of electrical energy is about dumping of the Nuclear Waste material. Usually, nuclear materials is dumped deep down the sea bed in sealed containers as this will minimize the risk of someone tampering it or getting exposed to it in the near future.
But as the human population is growing, the technology is also reaching its new heights. In such a scenario, thinking that our future generations will not dig it out will be highly hypothetical. No doubt with all the newest technology, one can be assured that the radiation emitted will be minimal, but this minimal radiation will surely have its effect in the years to come. This leaves our future generation highly vulnerable of being exposed to it, if not today, years later.
So when we think on the lines of this, the question that arises now is that "Has the Indian Government thought about this? Do they have any plans on this? If not, then this deals calls for much larger debate on dumping of the Nuclear Waste.
I do not want India to follow the footsteps of what countries like France and U.S. did earlier - dumping in the sea. Though, scientists across the globe are working on the alternatives of using this Nuclear Waste material or making it free from radiation before dumping, but are still in the premature stage.
