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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Jaitapur hearing takes place without opponents

Jaitapur hearing takes place without opponents

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published Published on Jan 19, 2011   modified Modified on Jan 19, 2011

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Tuesday made an emotional appeal for the Jaitapur nuclear power project saying that he would never tolerate an unsafe project for Maharashtra at any cost.

Speaking at an “open house” on the project at the Y. B. Chavan auditorium here, the Chief Minister said that in setting up this project about 60 to 65 per cent of the work would be done by Indian companies. It would be the largest industrial project with an investment worth Rs.1 lakh crores, he said, adding that he was not averse to having a meeting at the project site itself.

While many opponents of the project from Madban and surrounding areas boycotted the meeting, the government turned up in strength with several Cabinet Ministers including Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Industries Minister Narayan Rane, Tourism Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, and bureaucrats, apart from senior officials from the atomic energy sector.

Mr. Chavan said the meeting was to clear the air on technical issues. Compensation matters could be discussed later and in any case the government was committed to giving enhanced compensation, he added. While many people claiming to be locals welcomed the project and congratulated the Chief Minister amid much applause, they also demanded that a hearing of this type be held in the project area.

The Chief Minister later said he was very happy with the entire session.

The meeting took place for over two hours and people raised questions on radiation, environmental safety, issues of the project being located in a seismic zone, impact on health, marine life and fishing, thermal discharge, the choice of the EPR reactor and the company Areva which is supplying the reactors.

Atomic Energy Commission chairman Srikumar Banerji said there are 20 nuclear plants running in the country and “we have demonstrated that the environment is well protected and on the contrary the flora and fauna has improved there”.

He called on people to visit nuclear power plants and see for themselves the changes that had happened for the better there.

Dr. Jayendra Parulekar from Konkan, an erstwhile project opponent, congratulated the government and spoke in its favour and said the government must remove misconceptions being spread by a section of people.

In response to questions on the EPR technology, Dr. Banerjee clarified that it was a first of a kind reactor but it was already being built in Finland, China and France. He admitted there was a delay in Finland but it did have clearance in the countries where it was being built. He also said that the Jaitapur plant was not a turnkey project.

Experts also clarified that there was no danger in locating six 1650-MW equivalent reactors at Jaitapur and even in Rajasthan there were eight reactors though of a lesser capacity. Tokyo had seven reactors in one place.

S. P. Dharne from the Nuclear Power Corporation of India, which is in charge of the Jaitapur project, said nuclear power was clean and green energy and it was not nuclear power that was responsible for events like the Hurricane Katrina, the ice melt, receding of the glaciers and other events which were due to climate change. He said nuclear energy can reduce the impact of global warming since it does not generate carbon dioxide. In addition, nuclear plants require less area and less fuel as compared to coal-based power plants and they have no pollution.

The Hindu, 19 January, 2011, http://www.hindu.com/2011/01/19/stories/2011011959860100.htm


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