(if people fail, they may migrate to safer places in other parts of the
country immediately)
Prof.T.Shivaji Rao,
Director, Center for Environmental Studies,
GITAM University, Visakhapatnam
Director, Center for Environmental Studies,
GITAM University, Visakhapatnam
http://tshivajirao.blogspot.in/2011/10/kudankulam-nuclear-plant-explosion.html
http://tshivajirao.blogspot.in/2012/02/kudankulam-nuclear-bomb-over-tamilnadu.html
http://tshivajirao.blogspot.in/2012/05/why-kudankulam-reactors-are-killers-of.html
http://tshivajirao.blogspot.in/2012/04/impossibility-of-nuclear-safety-as.html
http://expressbuzz.com/biography/npcil-declines-to-release-kknpp-safety-report/395617.html
http://www.countercurrents.org/vombatkere290512.htm
http://tshivajirao.blogspot.in/2012/02/kudankulam-nuclear-bomb-over-tamilnadu.html
http://tshivajirao.blogspot.in/2012/05/why-kudankulam-reactors-are-killers-of.html
http://tshivajirao.blogspot.in/2012/04/impossibility-of-nuclear-safety-as.html
http://expressbuzz.com/biography/npcil-declines-to-release-kknpp-safety-report/395617.html
http://www.countercurrents.org/vombatkere290512.htm
ABSTRACT: Presently there is a serious
controversy between the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) the Central Information
Commission (CIC) and the social activists on the issues of nuclear safety
reports being made available to the public as per International Standards. But the NPCIL is refusing to supply the reports to the activists under the pretext of proprietary
while the people are demanding for them under the Right to Information
Act. Many people are doubting why the nuclear safety reports affecting the public
are not made available to the people. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India
knows fully about the inevitable accidents that Kudankulam nuclear reactors
will experience in its present location due to human failures, mechanical
failures, electrical failures, earthquakes, tsunamis, major cyclones, air
attacks, enemy bombings and other hazards and also about its underestimates of
radiological impacts on the people, the animal populations and the natural
eco-systems including fisheries and public safety and hence is bent upon
misleading the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu on nuclear
safety and thereby is presenting them before the public as the International environmental
criminals like Hitler who violated all human ethics and morals and used gas
chambers to poison and slowly kill millions of Jews and others during the
second world war in a democratic social welfare state as envisaged by Mahatma
Gandhi the common people of India should fight against the proposed killer
nuclear reactors which are going to take away the right to life, right to
livelihood and the right to environmental resources including marine fishery
wealth which should be made available not only for their sustainable
development but also for the survival of their progeny. The educated people and intellectuals must
show their concern for public welfare and national prosperity as responsible
citizens and discharge their duties to
protect the environmental resources as envisaged by the great Prime Minister
Mrs.Indira Gandhi under Article 51 A(g) of the constitution of India. Like
Mahatma Gandhi who preached against 7 social evils and demanded to work for the
welfare of the people the Pope who is also for promoting peace and prosperity
must work against nuclear plants all over the world by advising the leaders of various
countries including India where the nuclear lobby is exerting its undue
pressure over the administration to promote the riskiest nuclear power in preference
to other alternate sources of energy which
are not only safe and economical but are also socially acceptable.
1) INTRODUCTION: The recent controversy between the anti-nuclear activists and
the nuclear plant authorities pertain to the objections raised by the
Kudankulam plant authorities to the order issued by the Central Information commission (CIC)
under the Right to Information Act for releasing safety report on Kudankulam
nuclear reactors. The nuclear plant
authorities are saying that they are holding Kudankulam Safety Analysis Report
(SAR) in a fiduciary capacity on behalf of a Russian company. The nuclear plant authorities are threatening
to go to court if CIC does not modify its orders on sharing the safety analysis
report prepared by Russians and it will show a copy of safety analysis report
for individuals as it is classified as a proprietary document. But the site evaluation report was made
available to Dr.S.P.Udaykumar the applicant under the Right to Information
Act. The nuclear plant authorities are
requesting the CIC to review and modify the order it passed on 30-4-2012 on the
subject. Site evaluation report was
furnished in the form of an executive summary while the activists demanding for
a full pledged SAR report which may not have any information related to reactor
design.
2) SITE EVALUATION REPORT INCLUDES
PUBLIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY:
Under these circumstances the problem
can be resolved by the anti-nuclear activists and CIC by insisting on the
supply of Kudankulam SAR that contains about 10,000 pages in about 35 volumes but
must insist on supply of the full reports of site evaluation report including
the preliminary safety analysis report before commencement of construction of
the plant and also the final safety analysis report prepared before the
reactors go into operation. These
reports are crucial for the public as they deal with the radioactive pollution
arising out of routine releases during the period of normal operations and also
emergency release of radioactivity into the environment during an inevitable
nuclear explosion caused by natural disasters or manmade accidents. Safety Evaluation Report also contains source
terms are emergency radioactive releases during an explosion and their
dispersion in the air, environment, water resources and soil resources and
their impacts on public health and safety.
This report also contains risk analysis anticipated radiation exposures
to people and animal populations at different distances from the plant and the
methods used for evacuation of people to safer places within the stipulated
times. This emergency evacuation
procedures must be handled mostly under the responsibilities of Panchayats and
District officials who may receive technical assistance from the central Government
agencies. The Tamilnadu state
Government must realize that while the nuclear plant costs only Rs.14,000 crores, the costs of damage that the
Government has to bear in case of an accident will be about Rs.4 lakh crores
for payment of compensation to the victims including costs of decontamination
and decommissioning of plant. The operation of the Kudankulam nuclear plant
shall be permitted if only the concerned local people are convinced that the evacuation of people
due to an accident at Kudankulam is possible and feasible as demonstrated by
the Tamilnadu government by holding mock drills before the commencement of the
production of electricity from the proposed reactors. If this mock drill shows that it is not
possible to implement emergency response systems as planned by the state and
central Governments the reactors can be stopped in public interest.
3) SITE EVALUATION REPORT SHOWS
THAT THE REACTORS ARE HAZARDOUS:
According to the site evaluation
report by the official experts the Kudankulam reactors are confirmed as slow
killer reactors as can be seen from the reasons under the following websites
According to the stipulated methods
for construction of nuclear plants three separate reports on site evaluation
must be prepared at different times based upon the stage of progress of the
project . For instance the first stage
report deals with site selection. The
second stage report deals with safety analysis report to be presented before
commencement of construction work and the third stage resort must be prepared
before the reactor goes into operation or becomes critical to commence production of
electricity. At present the official
site evaluation pertaining to the stage-II report has been prepared because the
construction work commenced in 2001. But the preliminary safety analysis report (PSAR) which is a
prerequisite for grant of Government clearance to commence construction of the
plant on the site is completed and its copy has been obtained under Right to
Information Act by the nuclear activists.
But this report has not been
furnished to the people for public hearing and it is said to have been
submitted to Atomic Energy Regulation Board (AERB) which is not an organization
accountable for protection of public health, the environment and the national economy
of the country and it is under the control of the Prime Minister who is the
promoter of nuclear plants.
Pre-operational safety report under
stage-III has to be prepared before the nuclear reactors go into production and
this resort is prepared in order to complete and refine the site
characteristics and to confirm assumptions made in the safety analysis of the
reactor as a part of the final safety analysis report (FSAR). Even this FSAR report has not been placed
before the public of Kudankulam and Tamilnadu for whose benefit the project is
supposed to have been taken to attain the final stage of production of electricity. This
report is not placed before the public to receive the suggestions from the
public to make the project safer, economical and useful to the state and the
country.
4) REACTORS CAN BE STOPPED IN JUNE
2012 THROUGH PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION:
Even at this stage the Kudankulam reactors
can be stopped if only Mrs.Sonia Gandhi leader of the Congress party of India
can be properly educated on the impending disastrous consequences of a reactor
explosion due to human errors or other causes as had happened at Chernobyl in
1986 or Fukushima in 2011. Since the
Prime Minister of India and the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu are going ahead
with the project inspite of the greatest risks this country is going to face including
economic bankruptcy due to an inevitable explosion at Kudankualm reactor in the
long run. The more enlightened members
of Parliament like Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi must be properly advised by
enlightened world citizens including the Pope who like Mahatma Gandhi is
strongly pleading for abandonment of nuclear plants all over the world By opposing the commencement of these reactors
the world leaders will only help directly or indirectly to stop the escalating
levels of poverty, disease, unemployment, economic and ecological ruination of
several countries as a nuclear accident in any country tantamount to a nuclear
accident in any other country in the world as the world is becoming a global
village.
5) TAMILNADU SHOULD USE LIGNITE IN
PLACE OF RISKIER AND COSTLIER NUCLEAR POWER:
In the case of Kudankulam nuclear
reactors the arguments put forward by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the
Chief Minister of Tamilnadu Jayalalitha are very childish. The argument that the Tamilnadu needs more power is accepted by
everybody but the common people want that state and central governments must
give preference for more safer, economical and ecological sound electricity
production units based on oil, natural gas and renewable energy sources like
solar power, bio-fuels and wind in place of the most riskiest, costliest and
ecological destructive nuclear plants.
If the lignite coal from Neyveli mines in
Tamilnadu is proposed to be exported to generate more electricity in other
distant states like Uttara Pradesh and
Orissa, the millions of people in Southern states who will be effected by the
radioactive pollution from the proposed reactors they have a natural right to
demand that the same lignite coal available in plenty within the state can be
better used to produce the same electrical power by replacing the most riskiest
Kudankulam nuclear reactors which are imported from foreign countries like
Russia at an exorbitant cost that adversely effects the national economy and
the health and welfare of the people of south India. Tamilnadu
state can have thermal stations that can use plenty of resources like Lignite
coal, coal, oil or natural gas and these resources can be used at Kudankulam by
making necessary modifications to make use of the already constructed nuclear
reactors so that there will not be any economic loss to the country. The
argument that if the Kudankulam reactors are not allowed to function
immediately the investment of Rs.14,000 crores
made for the plant will become useless.
6)NUCLEAR ACCIDENT CAUSES LOSS OF Rs. 4 LAKH CRORES FOR A PLANT OF Rs.14,000 CRORES:
If these nuclear reactors are started
and if they are going to experience an explosion due to several natural and man-made causes as in
Fukushima or Chernobyl it will result in an economic loss to the country of
about Rs.4 lakh crores as estimated by Japan to pay for the victims of the
Fukushima accident. Hence it will be
much cheaper and safer to abandon the proposal to make the Kudankulam reactors
critical immediately, because such an effort is bound to ruin the fisheries
wealth in the Bay of Bengal and the agriculture and animal husbandry operations in
Southern Tamilnadu and the public health of millions of people in southern
states particularly in Tamilnadu and Kerala on a large scale according to the
latest scientific atmospheric radioactive dispersion modeling made by the
scientists of Germany.
7) SHOULD CHILDREN COLLECT MONEY
TO REPAY COST OF KUDANKULAM REACTORS?:
Recently children in a few villages of
cuddapah district in Andhra Pradesh started to collect funds by begging in the
streets to send that money to AP State Government which is promoting liquor
drinking among the people. Since the
children have realized that because of such evil actions of the state
Government their parents are becoming addicted to drinking liquor and face
malnutrition and early deaths with the result that the entire families are
getting ruined. As a solution to resolve
this problem the children began to beg in the public streets to collect money
and send it to the state Government to stop such an evil act that ruins their
lives. Similarly the children in
Tamilnadu and other states may be inspired by the genuine social activities to
undertake a similar activity to repay the cost of Rs.14,000 crores to the Union
Government to stop these riskiest reactors which are nothing but slow killers
of mankind and natural life systems, the
foundation stones for the survival of the planet earth.
8) TAMILNADU STATE REFUSES TO KNOW HOW KUDANKULAM WILL BE A WHITE
ELEPHANT TO THE STATE AND A HAZARD TO PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY OF
TAMILIANS:
The Tamilnadu Chief Minister refuses
to know that according to the National Disaster Management Authority guidelines
on the role of the District, Government and Panchayat officials in Southern
districts of Tamilnadu that they have to prepare air pollution modeling studies
for dispersion of radioactivity for the different fluctuating magnitude and
directions of the winds that carry the pollutants for hundreds of kilometers
downwind for preparing the risk analysis, nuclear explosion scenario, emergency
evacuation and resettlement and disaster management plans as per stipulated
guidelines of the the Government of India.
The Chief Minister of Tamilnadu also
refuses to know that the state has to spend more than Rs.4 lakh crores rupees
to meet the costs of compensation to the victims of reactor accident pollution
as had happened at Fukushima as per the estimates made by the Japanese
Government., in case such an accident becomes inevitable at Kudankulam in
course of time.
Taking these into
consideration, emergency situations are classified as
1) plant emergency alert,
1) plant emergency alert,
2) plant emergency,
3) site emergency, and
4) off-site emergency.
While the operating organization of the
plant are responsible for handling the first three categories of emergencies,
off-site emergencies are handled by the State authorities with the
technical input and guidance from operating organization of the plant and
regulatory authority.
An exclusion
area of appropriate size (at least 1.5 km radius from the reactor centre) shall
be established around the reactor and entry to this is to be restricted to
authorized personnel only. Thus the population falling
within the exclusion zone, if any, is only resettled. The sterilized zone
is the annulus between the exclusion zone and an area up to 5 km from the
plant. The AERB code states in this regard:
“A sterilised area up to 5 km around the
plant shall be established by administrative measures where the growth of
population will be restricted for effective implementation of emergency
measures. Natural growth, however, is allowed in this zone”.
Thus,
there is no displacement involved in the sterilized zone.
9) QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED BY TAMILNADU STATE IF IT CAN SHOULDER
EMERGENCY EVACUATION PROCEDURES TO
ESNURE SAFETYOF TAMILIANS?:
The anti-nuclear activists at
Kudankulam must raise the public issues concerning the safety of the plant and
the people including the emergency evacuation procedures proposed to be
followed in case of a maximum credible accident at Kudankulam.
Does the state Government have the
knowledgeable experts who can decide the
levels of exposure and at what time
intervals the radiation levels exceed the specified limits and whether such victims
can be transported in time to safer
places outside their residential areas and for what interval of time they
should be kept outside their residential areas and brought back to their native
places after decontaminating their houses, schools, roads and agriculture
fields over a period of 5 to 20 years.
10) COST OF NUCLEAR ACCIDENT IS SEVERAL TIMES HIGHER THAN THE REACTORS:
A) Does the Chief Minister of
Tamilnadu know that while the Kudankulam reactors cost Rs.14,000 crores only the costs
of damage to the victims of pollution due to an accident cost the people of
Tamilnadu Rs.4 lakh crores to pay compensation to the victims on the same
pattern followed in the case of the Bhopal disaster.
B) As the Tamilnadu Government
sufficient numbers of skilled man power to help in the evacuation of victims of
radioactivity due to explosion accompanied with sufficient numbers of vehicles
for transporting the victims to safer places and provide necessary medical and
infrastructure facilities.
C) Are the non-governmental
organizations prepared to study the reports in the websites on risk analysis,
accident scenario and emergency preparedness including Disaster Management
plans as prepared by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India and in their absence
whether similar reports prepared by Indian experts can be studied by the
anti-nuclear activists under the website and take further necessary action and
educate the public in all the villages and towns of Tamilnadu.
11) BY BEING INDIFFERENT TO EDUCATE THE PUBLIC ON THE INEVITABLE
POISONING OF TAMILIANS DUE TO ROUTINE AND ACCIDENTAL RADIOACTIVE RELEASES FROM
KUDANKULAM, ARE THE INTELLECTUALS OF INDIA OPTING TO COMMIT SOCIAL CRIMES?
Mahatma Gandhi said that science
without humanity is one of the 7 social evils and we should not succumb to such
evils and as educated people we have to discharge our responsibilities as true
citizens of India as envisaged by the
late Prime Minister Mrs.Indira Gandhi who amended article 51 A(g) of the
constitution of India to protect the
environment for the good of the nation.
In the case of the Kudankulam reactors it is well established that we
have several alternate sources of energy which are not only cheap but also safe
and promote sustainable development. But
the Kudankulam reactors are killers of mankind and they should be stopped.
In this connection the anti-nuclear activists
must be prepared to raise the question of displacement of
people to avoid exposure to excessive levels of radiation and for the purpose
whether the Government has prepared
plans for emergency evacuation for a distance of a) 1.5km
b) 5km c) 10kms d) 16kms
e)20kms f) 30km g) 50km
or h) 80km from the nuclear power
plant as per the different standards
followed in different countries or whether the nuclear plant authorities are
prepared to follow the International standards of IAEA which stipulates 25km
distance from the plant for exposure zone and 300kms for ingestion zone as can
be from the websites.
Father Thomas Kochhery has rightly
presented the views of Mahatma Gandhiji which echo the basic principles of
Christianity which inspire people to lover other people is love of fellowmen as
love of God and service to fellowmen is
service to God and the Pope as the world leader who can influence the thinking
of millions of people also take the lead as it involves the question of life
and death to millions of people of the present and future generations as
envisaged by the International scientific experts like Jos Lelieveld at Max
Planck Institute, Germany under the website.
If the anti-nuclear activists and
lovers of mankind and nature are not able to educate the people all over the
Tamilnadu state on the hazards of the Kudankulam reactors they will be not only
indirectly abutting the crime of poisoning the whole tamil population and
Kerala population for several decades to come but they will also help in this
destruction of all eco-systems and poison the marine wealth which is used as
protein food by millions of Indians along the coastline of India and these
people will be ultimately poison by consuming the protein rich fisheries which
are being poisoning by the radioactive pollutants like Tritium in the Inland
and marine coastal waters of USA and Canada as can be seen from several
websites including the main organ website http://www.dianuke.org/ and the link articles in it.
12) LOCAL PEOPLE CAN APPROACH
COURTS AND GREEN TRIBUNAL FOR SOLUTIONS:
If the people likely to be effected
by the Kudankulam nuclear plant hazards they have to seek the protection of
their right to life and right to livelihood, the right to environment by taking
the help of the High Courts and Supreme Court by filing a Public Interest
Litigation cases as being followed by other environmental activists in other
parts of India and thereby they may be able to succeed even by approaching the Green
Tribunals recently set up in the country which are dealing with the similar
cases like the one relating to Jaitapur nuclear plant. Just like the Bhopal
disaster was a manmade crime the Kudankulam nuclear accident waiting in the
wings will be another manmade crime that costs in damages several lakhs of
crores of rupees which will make the state and the country get into an
economical bankrupt state.
13) WORLD CITIZENS MUST REQUEST POPE AND OTHERS TOGET NUCLEAR PLANTS BANNED:
The present generation of people in
Tamilnadu have no inherent rights to poison the youth the future citizens of
India and the children yet to be born by foreclosing their options to live on
earth. The Pope may kindly take these problems of ethics, morals, human values
and the present day administrative structures which are invading over the
rights of the people and making a mockery of a democratic social welfare state
for which lakhs of people of people in India laid their lives in the freedom
struggle to see their progeny in a happy and prosperous land.
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