By Craig Cormick
Following the recent nuclear power station accident at Sosnovyi Bor near Saint Petersburg in Russia, global confidence in nuclear power continues to decline, as do the number of power stations being built. Yet in Asia, the number of nuclear power stations is climbing.
This raises questions whether underdeveloped countries are being pressured to become a "dumping ground" for unwanted nuclear technologies and whether they can afford to maintain the necessary high safety and maintenance standards.
According to the Australian Nuclear Science Technology Organisation (ANSTO), there are currently 124 nuclear reactors in the Asia region, with another 23 under construction, and there are plans for a further 41 more to built.
Japan is the major nuclear energy country in Asia, with 42 reactors producing about 30% of its electricity. Even with the most advanced technology and standards, it has not been without accidents. In February 1991, a cloud of radioactive contaminants was released into the air around a reactor at Mihama.
Other, far more serious, accidents have occurred at power plants in India, which has seven commercial plants. One, at Tarapur, near Bombay, was described in a report late last year as "the worlds's worst performing and most polluting nuclear power reactor".
Of a reactor in Rajastan, the Indian antinuclear journal Anumukti has made accusations of breakdowns, water leakages and ignoring of international safety regulations. According to the report, young labourers were receiving twice the yearly radiation dose limit in a single day.
Indonesia plans the first of 12 nuclear power plants in central Java. It is being built in an area of known seismic activity and, according to ANSTO, it uses a design which failed at the US Three Mile Island accident.
This is causing concern among nearby countries. The chairperson of the Coordinating Council of the Torres Strait Islands, Getano Lui, has expressed his concerns that Australian-supplied uranium could return in a radioactive cloud.
Lui said, in a recent issue of Pacific News Bulletin, "We have been aware and uneasy about Indonesia's plan to commission between seven and 12 nuclear power plants. However, it
comes as a considerable shock to read that Australia is proposing to provide the nuclear fuel for these plants."
In a depressed nuclear market, both reactor construction companies and nuclear fuel providers are looking to developing countries for continued sales.
Greenpeace's uranium industry expert, Jean McSorley, also quoted n, said that with nuclear power plants being closed down in the developed world, "the main target for a nuclear industry desperately in search of markets is Third World countries with power problems".
Other nuclear nations in Asia include Taiwan (six US-supplied reactors), Pakistan (one commercial and two research reactors) and South Korea (nine reactors). Smaller reactors exist in countries among the world's poorest, such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
Bataan power station
In 1985 the Philippines government completed its first atomic power plant in Bataan, north of Manila. The power station has never been used.
During its construction, allegations arose about corruption, bribery and faulty construction. There were also fears about its hazardous location in an active seismic zone.
One of Corazon Aquino's pledges, before becoming president in 1986, was that she would close down the plant, but would still honour payment on the estimated $1 billion worth of foreign loans funding the project.
Early this year the government and Westinghouse settled a long- running suit over an alleged US$17.3 million bribe paid to former President Ferdinand Marcos by Westinghouse and the engineering firm Burns and Roe.
By the settlement, the Philippines government will suspend the suit and will pay Westinghouse US$300 million over the next three years, and Westinghouse will provide US$400 million worth of work to upgrade the nuclear plant to an operational standard.
The power plant is still costing the Philippines a reported $300,000 per day just in servicing the original loans, and several candidates in the current presidential campaign have said they will open the plant for operation.