Cyclone Emergency Preparedness in DAE Coastal Installations, India

It may not be out of place here to present a brief account of the origin and development of cyclone emergency management planning in the Indian Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) installations. Reactor Research Centre [the present Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR)] was set up in early seventies on the charming and serene coast of Bay of Bengal, close to Mahabalipuram. It was intended to be a center for the development of advanced reactor technology with Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) as its core activity. On a heavily overcast day in mid seventies, while a few of us in the Health and Safety group along with experts from other disciplines were intensely discussing about the safety evaluation of FBTR, the then Director ofthe Centre Mr. N. Srinivasan walked in and said ’You people are working so hard to protect us against the reactor accidents which may never happen. But what have you done, or doing, about an emergency which is highly probable for this area and which may occur any day now? I am talking about the cyclone emergency; there is a warning that the cyclone may cross the coast in this region in the next 48 hours.’ He was dead right! We were discussing about the Maximum Credible Accident (MCA) in the reactors with the probability of the order of 10−6 per year, while it is well known that every year 2–3 severe cyclones cross the peninsular coast with devastating effects (see Section 2). The Centre, still being in the formative stage with low-lying areas, temporary structures and shacks, asbestos roofing, improvised and inadequate drainage, etc., was highly vulnerable for cyclone damage. Obviously, our priority should have been the planning for management of cyclone emergency at site and it was taken up in right earnest.