AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalitha on Tuesday asked the Centre to give up its plan to allow USS Nimitz, the nuclear-armed aircraft carrier from the US Navy, to dock at the Chennai port.
In a press statement, Ms Jayalalitha said entry to the ship would expose Chennai to “grave hazards of radiation”. She said the Water Transport Workers Federation had already taken up the issue with the Union Shipping secretary and the Chennai Port Trust chairman and requested them not to give permission to such a “deadly and disastrous” vessel to enter Indian waters.
Ms Jayalalitha said that because of radiation hazards, many countries like Australia had denied permission to the warship to enter their shores.
The ship, which will have 5,000 personnel and 90 aircraft, is scheduled to call at Chennai port on July 1 and will be berthed there till July 5.
USS Nimitz has been in the Persian Gulf since May, giving air support to ground forces operating in Iraq, according to reports. Two years ago, Indian Navy’s aircraft carrier INC Viraat conducted a joint exercise with USS Nimitz in which 6,500 US and Indian seamen took part.The US embassy in New Delhi in a statement has described the first ever port call in India by a US nuclear carrier as a “landmark event” and said the nuclear safety record of US nuclear warships “is outstanding”.