-The Hindu   After the Jaitapur nuclear power project in Maharashtra, it is now the turn of the 2,000-MWe Kudankulam atomic plant in Tamil Nadu to run into serious opposition. As protests by local residents and activists intensified, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Monday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to order the halting of the project until concerns and fears about the plant's safety were addressed. Hours later, Dr. Singh called up Ms....

-The Hindu   Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) V. Narayanasamy on Tuesday met those protesting for the past 10 days against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) and assured them that the safety and security of the people were paramount. “People's safety first and power generation comes later,” he told them at Idinthakarai in Tirunelveli district. Mr. Narayanasamy was deputed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to meet the agitators and...

The government on Wednesday introduced the Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority (NSRA) Bill seeking to create two regulatory bodies as part of measures to strengthen safety at the country’s atomic power plants, fulfilling an assurance given by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the aftermath of Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March. The government had said on 26 April it would draft a Bill to create an independent and autonomous regulator that...

Plans for a nuclear plant generate protests Fear factor...     * Protests have rocked Srikakulam district, where NPCIL plans a 9,000 MW nuclear plant     * The plant will displace people from 12 nearby villages     * The project is estimated to cost Rs 1.2 lakh-crore     * NPCIL promises a “liberal” resettlement package. Activists counter the proposed plant is a Fukushima-like environment risk. *** Earlier this year, sustained protests brought nationwide attention to the 2,640...

-The Economic Times   All public data-from that on glacier meltdowns to monsoon charts to benami land--will be freely available at the click of a mouse with the launch of a national data portal next month. Modeled on US chief information officer Vivek Kundra's Data.gov.us project, the science and technology ministry's portal-- data.gov.in--aims to democratize data, and make the government more "open". "We plan to launch data.gov.in by next month. Once the National...