The anti-nuclear lobby will launch an agitation against setting up of any more nuclear reactors in India.
The anti-nuclear lobby will launch an agitation against setting up of any more nuclear reactors in India. "The second unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant would be the last of the nuclear reactor to be set up in India. We will not allow any more nuclear power plants to come up in the country,” Dr MP Parameswaran, a prominent anti-nuclear activist told DNA.
He was responding to the statement by Alexander Kadakin, the Russian ambassador to India who said the other day that an agreement for a third and fourth units of the KNPP would be signed shortly.
As per the original agreement between Rajiv Gandhi and Mikhail Gorbachev signed in 1988, the erstwhile USSR was to help India in setting up six nuclear power plants, each of 1000 MW at Kudankulam. Works on the two units are almost over and the commissioning of the first unit could take place in a couple of months. The second unit will be commissioned by the end of 2012. According to R Banerjee, project director, KNPP, the excavation work for the next two reactors would be taken up shortly.
But volunteers of the Peoples Movement Against Nuclear Energy are agitating at Kudankulam demanding the shut down of the first and second units where Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd’s engineers are burning midnight oil to commission the plants as early as possible.
"Till the NPCIL authorities give a satisfactory explanation about what they propose to do with the tonnes and tonnes of radio active waste generated in these power plants, we will not allow work to begin for the next two units. Let them commission the first two units. We were slow in launching the agitation against the first two units," said Dr Parameswaran, India’s first PhD in nuclear engineering.
Dr Parameswaran was a USSR trained reactor scientist with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Trombay before joining the anti-nuclear brigade. He has chalked out an action plan for a countrywide massive agitation against the nuclear power plants. "I hope Medha Patkar, Vandana shiva and Surendra Gadekar all will assemble at Kudankulam to formally launch the agitation," he said.
Meanwhile, CR Neelakantan, another BARC nuclear engineer-turned activist said they would consult legal luminaries to find out the possibilities of getting a stay order against the construction of new reactors. "Let the nuclear energy bosses give a convincing answer about the radio active waste management. Then we will think of allowing them to go ahead with the works," said Neelakantan.
Pushparayan, the second-in-command of the PMANE, was reluctant to talk about their plans. "Our phones are being tapped. Even our mails are under observation. But we have know that an accord for the 3rd and 4th units are to be signed shortly," said Pushparayan.
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