Nuclear Suppliers Group : NSG

The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is a group of nuclear supplier countries which seeks to contribute to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons through the implementation of Guidelines for nuclear exports and nuclear related exports.
The NSG Guidelines are implemented by each Participating Government in accordance with its national laws and practices. Decisions on export applications are taken at the national level in accordance with national export licensing requirements.

It was founded in 1974 in response to the Indian nuclear test earlier in that year. The test demonstrated that certain non-weapons specific nuclear technology could be readily turned to weapons development. Nations already signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) saw the need to further limit the export of nuclear equipment, materials or technology. Another benefit was that non-NPT and non-Zangger Committee nations, then specifically France, could be brought in

The NSG Plenary works on the basis of consensus. Overall responsibility for activities lies with the NSG Participating Governments who meet once a year in a Plenary meeting

Initially the NSG had seven members: Canada, West Germany, France, Japan, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

As of 2009 the NSG has 46 members

Brazil, Russia, Germany, South Africa, and South Korea are its members. China became a member in 2004. The European Commission participates as an observer

India and NSG: During a state visit to India in November 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama announced U.S. support for India's membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Wassenaar Arrangement, the Australia Group and the Missile Technology Control Regime, "in a phased manner," and to encourage the evolution of regime membership criteria to that end, "consistent with maintaining the core principles of these regimes."

During a visit to India in December 2010, French President also expressed his country's backing for India's inclusion in Nuclear Suppliers Group.

In July 2006, the United States Congress amended U.S. law to accommodate civilian nuclear trade with India. In another meeting on September 6, 2008, the NSG members agreed to grant India a "clean waiver" from its existing rules, which forbid nuclear trade with a country which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The approval was based on a formal pledge by India stating that it would not share sensitive nuclear technology or material with others and will uphold its voluntary moratorium on testing nuclear weapons

Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant

Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power station currently under construction in Kudankulam in the Tirunelveli district of the southernIndian state of Tamil Nadu. Project investment cost to India was estimated to be US$ 3.5 billion in a 2001 agreement.^[1]

An Inter-Governmental Agreement on the project was signed on November 20, 1988 by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. The project remained in limbo for 10 years due to political and economic upheaval in Russia after the post-1991 Soviet breakup, and also due to objections of the United States on the grounds that the agreement does not meet the 1992 terms of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).^[2][edit]History

There are negotiations over the possible addition of a naval base at the site, both safeguarding the project and as a presence in the southern tip of the country.^[3] A small port became operational in Kudankulam on January 14, 2004. This port was established to receive barges carrying over sized light water reactor equipment from ships anchored at a distance of 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi). Until 2004 materials had to be brought in via road from the port ofTuticorin, risking damage during transportation.^[4]

In 2008 negotiation on building four additional reactors at the site began. Though the capacity of these reactors has not been declared, it is expected that the capacity of each reactor will be 1000 MW or 1 GW.^[5][6] The new reactors would bring the total capacity of the power plant to 9200 MW or 9.2 GW.

[edit]Technical description

Two 1 GW reactors of the VVER-1000 model are being constructed by the Nuclear Power corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and Atomstroyexport (Russia). When completed they will become the largest nuclear power generation complex in India producing a cumulative 2 GW of electric power.^[7] Both units are water cooled water moderated power reactors.^[8] The first was scheduled to start operation in December 2009 and the second one was scheduled for March 2010. Currently, the official projections put unit 1 into operation in June 2011, and unit 2 in March 2012.^[9][10][11]

Four more reactors are set to be added to this plant under a memorandum of intent signed in 2008.^[12] A firm agreement on setting up two more reactors, has been postponed pending the ongoing talks on liability issues. Under an inter-government agreement signed in December 2008 Russia is to supply to India four third generation VVER-1200 reactors of 1170 MW.^[13] The nuclear project will be commissioned in April 2011.^[14]

Nuclear Radiation , Iodine , Related Facts

In the types of reactors involved (Japan incident), water is used to cool the reactor core and produce steam to turn the turbines that make electricity. The water contains two of the least dangerous radioactive materials now in the news, radioactive nitrogen and tritium. Normal plant operations produce both of them in the cooling water and they are even released routinely in small amounts into the environment, usually through tall chimneys.

Nitrogen is the most common gas in the earth's atmosphere, and at a nuclear plant the main radioactive form is known as nitrogen-16. It is made when speeding neutrons from the reactor's core hit oxygen in the surrounding cooling water. This radioactive form of nitrogen does not occur in nature.

The danger of nitrogen-16 is an issue only for plant workers and operators because its half-life is only seven seconds. A half-life is the time it takes half the atoms of a radioactive substance to disintegrate.

The other form of radioactive materials often in the cooling water of a nuclear reactor is tritium. It is a naturally occurring radioactive form of hydrogen, sometimes known as heavy hydrogen. It is found in trace amounts in groundwater throughout the world. Tritium emits a weak form of radiation that does not travel very far in the air and cannot penetrate the skin. It accumulates in the cooling water of nuclear reactors and is often vented in small amounts to the environment. Its half-life is 12 years.

Iodine and cesium

The big worries on the reported releases of radioactive material in Japan centre on radioactive iodine and cesium.

“They imply some kind of core problem,” said Thomas B. Cochran, a senior scientist in the nuclear programme of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a private group in Washington.

The active core of a nuclear reactor splits atoms in two to produce bursts of energy and, as a by-product, large masses of highly radioactive particles. The many safety mechanisms of a nuclear plant focus mainly on keeping these so-called fission products out of the environment.

Iodine-131

Iodine-131 has a half-life of eight days and is quite dangerous to human health. If absorbed through contaminated food, especially milk and milk products, it will accumulate in the thyroid and cause cancer. Located near the base of the neck, the thyroid is a large endocrine gland that produces hormones that help control growth and metabolism.

The thyroid danger, von Hippel of Princeton said, is gravest in children. “The thyroid is more sensitive to damage when the cells are dividing and the gland is growing,” he said.

Fortunately, an easy form of protection is potassium iodide, a simple compound typically added to table salt to prevent goiter and a form of mental retardation caused by a dietary lack of iodine.

Potassium iodide

If ingested promptly after a nuclear accident, potassium iodide, in concentrated form, can help reduce the dose of radiation to the thyroid and thus the risk of cancer. In the United States, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission recommends that people living within a 10-mile emergency planning zone around a nuclear plant have access to potassium iodide tablets.

Over the long term, the big threat to human health is cesium-137, which has a half-life of 30 years. At that rate of disintegration, John Emsley wrote in Nature's Building Blocks (Oxford, 2001), “it takes over 200 years to reduce it to 1 per cent of its former level.”

It is cesium-137 that still contaminates much land in Ukraine around the Chernobyl reactor. In 1986, the plant suffered what is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history.

Cesium-137 mixes easily with water and is chemically similar to potassium. It thus mimics how potassium gets metabolised in the body and can enter through many foods, including milk. After entering, cesium gets widely distributed, its concentrations said to be higher in muscle tissues and lower in bones.

Risk of cancer

The radiation from cesium-137 can throw cellular machinery out of order, including the chromosomes, leading to an increased risk of cancer.

The Environmental Protection Agency says that everyone in the U.S. is exposed to very small amounts of cesium-137 in soil and water because of atmospheric fallout from the nuclear detonations of the Cold War. The agency says that very high exposures can result in serious burns and even death, but that such cases are extremely rare. Once dispersed in the environment, it says, cesium-137 “is impossible to avoid.”

How Iodine Pills work:

The thyroid gland absorbs both stable and radioactive iodine and cannot determine the difference between the two. When you take the tablets, the thyroid becomes “full” and will be unable to absorb any more iodine — either stable or radioactive — for the next 24 hours.