Russian engineers leave Kudankulam

“We have to try hard; precious time has been lost as the people (both contract workers and the Russian engineers) have left Kudankulam and there could be a delay in commissioning the project,” M K Balaji, Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant site-director told Deccan Herald over telephone on Friday evening.

When asked how many experts from Russia’s nuclear agency Atomstroyexports’ have left the site since the agitation began in September, Balaji could not put a number to it. But he confirmed no one was officially asked to leave.

Russia’s state nuclear agency has been assisting the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) to build the plants at Kudankulam. 

 Stating that all the Russians working at the plant site stayed at the separate quarters built for them at ‘Anu Vijay Township’ close to the project area, Balaji said some of them were on short-term assignments and some on long-term.

The Russians leaving “is not directly related to the people’s agitation against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power plant,” he emphasised. 

Depending on the duration of their respective assignments, the Russian engineers and experts left accordingly, the official explained.

No physical block

There was no physical blockade of KNPP employees now, even as 100-odd staff inside the plant complex attended to essential maintenance works, Balaji said.

 However, he said all work has been totally halted with even contract workers from Kudankulam and other nearby coastal villages having left.

Since the protests intensified when the agitators blocked personnel entering the plant from the township area, Balaji said, “we didn’t want to create a law and order problem”, in moving personnel into the plant area.

 “We are waiting for the state administration’s support so that we can move all our personnel by buses into the plant area,” Balaji said. The KNPP site director added that he had no word yet when the Centre-appointed 15-member experts panel would reach Kudankulam to interact with the local people in a bid to allay their fears.

The KNPP’s first unit was expected to go on stream in December this year, but that deadline has already been missed.