APPLICATION OF REMOTE SENSING TECHNIQUES TO NUCLEAR POWER PLANT SITING IN A COASTAL ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

Site selection for a Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) requires a multidisclipinary approach involving consideration of factors such as radiological protection,water requirements & its quality,site hydrology,environment safety,seismicity and topographY.Conventional ground methods to the collection of data pertaining to above factors can be improved upon to a great extent by using satellite imagery and other similar remotely sensed data.The main advantage of such type of data lies in the synoptic and repetetive availability of the details of an area in image form even for regions inaccessible from land routes. The present study focuses on the above aspects of remotely sensed data use in the selection of a site for setting-up of a NPP in a region of about 20 Km.x25 Km.on the west coast in Ratnagiri district of Maharastra state.Imagery from the polar orbiting Indian and French satellites namely IRS-1A and SPOT,available to a scale of 1:50,000 for different dates are used in the study.BY visually interpreting the imagery thematic maps of landcover/landuse and drainage are developed. In addition using other data sources namely,toposheet,hydrographic map,census records and ground truth collected from field visits,other thematic Maps of population settlement,tidal submergence and coastal features are prepared.The information from these maps is then used to compare the safety aspects of both the NPP operation and the region's activities.For this purpose three hypothetical locations for the sitLng .)f a NPP are considered in the study area.From the compTArison of the results the best among the three locations for setting-up of a NPP is brought out and discussed. The study results show that the information available from remotely sensed data sources such as,satellite imagery can be gainfully used for a better understanding_ of the safety aspects of a NE" site.