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NPCIL told to publicize safety analysis reports-Anuja & Jacob P Koshy
Reluctance to make reports public could erode public confidence in government’s decisions, says CIC

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed India’s nuclear power plant operator to publicize safety analysis reports of the Kudankulam atomic power plant within a month.

In a contentious two-year dispute between environmentalists and the nuclear power establishment, the apex information commission, in an order on its website, has said that the reluctance to make the reports public could erode public confidence in the government’s decisions.

“If such reports are put in public domain, citizen’s views and concerns can be articulated in a scientific and reasonable manner,” read the CIC order. “Otherwise, citizens would believe that the government’s decisions are arbitrary or corrupt. Such a trust deficit would never be in the interest of the nation.”

The Rs.13,000 crore Kudankulam power plant in Chennai, which is expected to produce 1,000 megawatts (MW), has been at the centre of a simmering row between the government and anti-nuclear activists ever since the 2011 Fukushima earthquake in Japan, after which the project was halted and protesters blocked access to the site. Though project engineers were able to re-enter the site last month, officials say it may still be a while before power generation will resume.

The demand for publicizing the safety analysis report, which essentially details various measures that have been implemented in the design of the reactors to protect against foreseeable threats, was made by anti-nuclear activist S.P. Udayakumar in January 2010 under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

He sought copies of the the safety analysis report, site evaluation report and the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report for the reactors. While state-owned Nuclear Power Corp. of India Ltd (NPCIL) agreed to share the EIA report, it refused to make available the other two reports, seeking exemptions under two sections of the RTI Act, which state that information can be held back on the grounds that it would affect security, strategic and scientific interests or compromise commercial confidence. NPCIL is the country’s sole nuclear power plant operator.

CIC, however, held that except for design details, the disclosure of which may impair commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the absolute withholding of such information was incorrect. “Given the serious implications of the internal and external safety factors relating to nuclear reactors, there is great public interest in disclosing the safety evaluation report of the project,” CIC said. “Disclosure of the site evaluation and safety assessment reports will enable citizens to get a holistic understanding of the project including environment and safety concerns.”

NPCIL’s public information authorities said they hadn’t received CIC’s order and, therefore, couldn’t comment.

Independent experts said that while the information contained in safety analysis reports usually revealed important—even proprietary—elements of reactor design, it was feasible to edit out such portions.

“There are proprietary details...but you can leave such pages blank,” said A. Gopalakrishnan, a former chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board. “Basically, whatever is needed to assuage public confidence can be easily communicated. Such information on American nuclear plants is readily available and easily accessed, but our atomic energy establishment is quite closed.”

NPCIL runs 20 reactors and is constructing seven more, including the ones at Kudankulam. The existing reactors produce 4.7 billion watts of nuclear electricity and NPCIL has announced plans for facilities to generate 14 billion watts in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17).