A nuclear powerplant in Sri Lanka: Why?
The Government has approved the installation of a Russian-backed nuclear power plant in Sri Lanka. Even in a faintly democratic country, people must be informed of all its good, bad and ugly aspects as the future generation has to bear its costs, dangers and geo-political footprint in the years to come.
In summary, nuclear energy for Sri Lanka: Is too big and early as we don’t have the money and can’t build it ourselves.
It will push Sri Lanka more profoundly into the debt crisis more or less permanently as we have to borrow every dollar again.
It is a leap backwards when the whole world is moving towards renewable energy.
It is a project designed to completely lose our independence as we invite Russia’s geopolitics with complete dependence on nuclear waste removal.
All of us should be aware of the dangers of a nuclear disaster. This is because at least an area of at least 35 miles radius will be completely inhabitable for centuries to come.
It is perfect for the oligarchs but very bad for ordinary citizens. We will be in the same crisis; we need dollars to import uranium instead of diesel and coal.
We believe the proposal to install a nuclear power plant in Sri Lanka in collaboration with Russia amidst bankruptcy is an ill-conceived ‘death trap’ for our homeland. It contradicts the Parliament-approved Ceylon Electricity Board’s (CEB) Long-Term Generation Plan (LTGP) of 2021. The timing and motives behind it are unclear.
Our country became ‘bankrupt’ not because its people are lazy or economically less productive but because of massive corruption that has taken place over the decades by the politicians and their stooges. Scam after scam followed, and ‘politically’ motivated mega vanity projects were undertaken using long-term high-interest loans with’ kickbacks’ to the rulers and brokers.
Sadly, nuclear power is not a resolution to our power crisis. The power crisis was caused by the lack of foreign reserves in dollars to import fuel (diesel and coal) for our thermal power plants. Nuclear power plants need uranium, which must be imported using dollars. Thus, nuclear power plants offer no resolution to the current problem’s root cause. It will also not resolve the power crisis as atomic power plants take at least ten years to build and commission.
Sri Lanka has not fully explored and proposed alternative power generation sources, which could be achieved sooner and at a much lower cost. Given below is a summary of the alternatives and their status in the following table (with traffic light colours).
Russia has been shunned as an unreliable supplier by EU after being blackmailed since the Ukraine War. What assurance is there to learn that they would keep to the promises given this history?
We feel this matter should be subject to a national consultation in future when appropriate. It is certainly not an appropriate project at this moment amidst this current crisis.