The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA), conducted by the environment ministry, of the world’s largest Nuclear Power Park coming up at Jaitapur in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra has been found to suffer from serious lapses.
Nuclear scientist Mark Chernaik, a member of the Environment Law Alliance Worldwide, has faulted the EIA report on most counts.
Pointing to the superficial nature of the EIA, Mr Chernaik warns that "No assessment was undertaken of the consequences of an aircraft impact or of a terrorist attack in the EIA assessment. This has now become a must under international conventions."
"Following September 11 2001, the US Environment Protection Agency has made it mandatory that new power plants must be protected from land-based assaults, deliberate air crashes and other terrorists acts. It is for this reason that US EPA requires reactor designs to be assessed for the effects of the impact of a large commercial aircraft on the nuclear power plant," he points out.
Even information relating to the "environmental impacts and probabilities of severe accidents, including the probability of impact per reactor-year, the number of persons exposed to doses greater than two sieverts, the population exposure and the number of latent cancers have not been assessed," Mr Chernaik noted.
India’s nuclear facilities are largely being built along the coast line which is extremely susceptible to terrorist attacks and could well face a 9/11 situation.
Nuclear expert Bharat Karnad points out that the Indian nuclear plants in the past have used indigenous reactors which were aircraft proof.
"It is for this reason that I have been backing the building an indigenous nuclear plants since we are not privy to the kind of designs that are being by the suppliers in the near future," said Dr Karnad.
With one thermal power plant coming up every 15 km along the Konkan coast, environmental groups warn against the long term environmental damage.
Already, Jindal South West Power Plant and Finolex are being built in the Ratnagiri district. The Konkan coast is home to cashew, horticulture and rice.