Kudankulam protesters to resume fast

The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) is in trouble again. Even as the authorities say that the 1000MW first unit of the reactor complex would be commissioned in 40 days, leaders of the peoples movement against nuclear energy (PMANE) allege that there were serious problems with the safety of the plant.

“We understand that there are serious problems in the reactor pressure vessel, and that there is a perennial water spring near the reactor building and that is why some 18 Russian scientists have been invited urgently,” PMANE leaders SP Udaya Kumar and Pushparayan said in a release.

The statement comes immediately after the visit of a team of specialists headed by Valery Limarenko, chief of Atomstroyexports, the Russian company constructing the reactors at Kudankulam, last Thursday.

Daniel Chellappa, official spokesman of the department of atomic energy, said there was nothing wrong with the reactor pressure vessel. But top bosses of the DAE, including Sreekumar Banerjee, are rushing to KNPP on Wednesday.

The PMANE leaders said they would resume the indefinite fast against the KNPP from May 1.