During the December 2004 tsunami, the big wave washed over the beach and into the salt-water cooled beach-front Kalpakkam reactor site, 50 kms. south of Chennai (Madras), filling the massive 18 metre deep pit which had been excavated for the new breeder reactor being built there.

 

60 Kalpakkam employees died in the wave and the story goes that the nuke successfully went into automatic shutdown. All of Kalpakkam’s nuclear waste accumulations are stored on site, about a kilometre back from the beach.

About 20 years ago I spent a week at Mahabalipuram near the Kalpakkam Nuke, which was at that time shut down after its salt-water cooling pipes got plugged with jellyfish.

 

And a few years ago, K, D and I drove up to the main gates of Kalpakkam on our motorbike and asked for a tour of the nuke, seeing as how Canada had donated so much material (CANDU's etc) and expertise to India's nuclear program.