The former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, on Sunday visited the Kudankulam Nuclear power Project (KKNPP) and asserted that there was no need for any panic as it had state-of-the-art safety features. At the same time, Mr. Kalam made it clear that he had not come as an emissary of the Union government and would not be a mediator between the nuclear establishment and protesters opposing the plant. “I am completely satisfied and...

When farmers in Gujarat want to fight big companies or the government, they know who to turn to. A frail 95-year-old who survives on four chapatis a day and refuses to hang up his protester’s boots. Just seven months ago, Chunni Vaidya walked 370km to stop a Nirma cement plant in Mahuva village because he agreed that it would poison water bodies. Nowadays, if the Gandhian is not travelling to coastal Mithivirdi...

-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...

It was once a sleepy hamlet with rolling stretches of barren land, little agricultural activity and hardly any economy to boast of. But the Nuclear power project transformed Kudankulam drastically. There was a minor real estate boom, income levels rose and lifestyles changed. Today, in the place of a small vegetable shop is a market place selling a wide variety of vegetables. All that is set to be reversed.  The anti-nuclear...

-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...