-The Hindu   It is not a car factory where you can switch off the systems: NPCIL chairman The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) ran the risk of being seriously damaged with blockades creating a major impediment in ensuring that the plant systems functioned at a minimal level, scientists warned on Friday. “In a recent road blockade, work on the plant was halted. It is not a plant which can be just switched on...

-The Hindu   The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) has built into its design a multi-layered safety mechanism along with additional protocols to safeguard against systemic or human error at the 2000-MW station, nuclear experts said on Sunday. The incorporation of broad-ranging safety features makes the plant completely safe and insulated from a set of worst-case radiation risk scenarios, including a Chernobyl-type calamity or a Fukushima-like disaster set off by a tsunami, scientists...

-The Hindu   A group of 15 experts from various fields has been set up by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to interact with Tamil Nadu government officials and spokespersons of the people in the neighbourhood of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNNP) to dispel the apprehensions of the locals on the safety of reactors. Manmohan's assurance The decision follows Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assurance to a multi-party delegation from Tamil Nadu on October...

-The Hindu   Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the Centre will announce the setting up of a high-level group on the Kudankulam nuclear plant issue “today or tomorrow.” Dr. Singh had offered to set up a group to assuage the fears of the local population and the State government in a letter to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa which never reached her. The first unit of the Russian-assisted Kudankulam plant is slated to...

L. Devasagayam moved into the tsunami resettlement quarters in the village of Idinthakarai on the coast in the far south of Tamil Nadu after his neighbourhood further south was destroyed in the 2004 calamity. But now, he worries that the colourful home that he gratefully accepted after that disaster could be his undoing. The reason for the fear confronts him when he steps out of his house. Clearly visible at a...