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Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/india-india-nuke-deal-13384.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | India-India nuke deal | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

India-India nuke deal
-The Indian Express
 
Yes, NGOs unaware of energy needs are blocking Koodankulam. But what are UPA’s plans?

The Fukushima Daiichi power plant, an instant stick to beat the nuclear industry with, hosted first-generation nuclear reactors about to be decommissioned after 40 years of service when last year’s disaster struck. Since then, Fukushima has become a slogan for all those against the idea of nuclear power, feeding fears and building myths. It’s this that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sought to underline when he told Science that behind the stalling of Koodankulam are some US-based NGOs who “don’t appreciate the need for our country to increase the energy supply”. Last October, the NPCIL blamed foreign activists for backing locals whose protests stopped work at the DAE’s model site till then. Thereon, the issue snowballed from one of safety to a political headache for the government. So, notwithstanding the clutch of Church-backed NGOs, helped by a globe-trotting crew of activists-errant — some of whom have a sincere opposition to nuclear energy — the Centre must ask itself why it allowed things to come to this pass.

Despite continuing interactions at the behest of NPCIL at Koodankulam, what’s at stake always needed a louder, firmer public address from the government — to clearly tell the agitators in Jaitapur and Koodankulam that the twin Russian 1,000 MW reactors and the planned French EPRs are third-generation reactors, worlds apart from Fukushima in safety and emergency back-up systems. Instead, the UPA — which secured the India-US nuclear deal — allowed nuclear power to stall itself like land acquisition, by its unwillingness to own it. India needs nuclear power to diversify its energy basket in an environmentally friendly manner and reduce dependence on coal and thermal power which increase the atmospheric levels of black carbon.

The first Koodankulam reactor was set to go critical last December, with its hot run completed last August and now minimally kept running to avoid damage to its systems. In a low seismic zone and at a height of 13.5 metres above sea-level, the threat of an earthquake or tsunami is almost nullified for Koodankulam. These facts have been stated before, but never in a concerted effort from the government. What the PM told Science needs to be told to the larger public, remembering the PM’s own words that “we are a democracy” — “not like China” — and in a democracy, opposition needs to be countered by fact and argument. Activists will do their job, the UPA needs to do its own.