Anti-nuclear activists have come together to question why the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) has failed to introduce 11 of the 17 safety measures that they have been asked to implement by the Supreme Court.
Amongst the safety features, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) has yet to put in place is streamlining of instrumentation and additional supplies of water and power to ensure a repetition of the Fukushima nuclear disaster can take place on Indian soil.
Speaking at a press conference, activist Praful Bidwai said, “The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has given the green signal for fuel loading without these safety measures being implemented.”
Mr Bidwai quoted from the writings of former AERB chairperson A.K. Gopalakrishnan, (a nuclear scientist writing extensively against the KNPP) who has stated that three reports in 1979, 1986 and 1995 on safety features of nuclear installations has stated that “95 accidents have occurred in our nuclear establishment so far”.
“Should serious accidents have taken place, this could have been catastrophic, but unfortunately these reports remain classified and have not been placed in the public domain,” said Mr Bidwai. He also expressed surprise abut India’s obsession with nuclear power especially since it has been in decline across a large swathe of nations in the last two decades .
“After Fukushima, not a single insurance company is willing to finance purchase of nuclear reactors. The US has not ordered a single nuclear reactor since 1973,” Mr Bidwai added.
“India is presently producing less than 5,800 MWs from our 19 nuclear plants whereas government projection was that we should have presently been producing 43,000 MW,” he said.
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan regretted that tariff from nuclear energy was double that of convention energy. Mr Bhushan also expressed surprise that the Nuclear Liability Bill did not cover the KNPP. “Why are the Russians exempt from this?” he wondered.
The anti-nuclear activists maintain the Supreme Court had side-stepped key issues of nuclear liability, nuclear theft and disposal in its verdict on the KNPP in the first week of May.