Kudankulam safe, says Central team

Dissatisfied protesters walk out, vow to continue agitation against the project

After a three-day detailed examination of documents and review of safety aspects, the head of the 15-member expert team and noted environmental scientist Dr A E Muthuna-yagam said the team is satisfied over the project’s safety.

The team is convinced that KNPP reactors have special safety features and adequate redundancies built into them that even if there was any problem in any of its sub-systems, “the total system will come into proper, safety operational mode.”

Muthunayagam was talking at the district headquarters of Tirunelveli after the team’s second interaction with the State-level team which included representatives of the K­ud­an­k- ulam area people who have major apprehensions about KNPP following the Fukushima disaster.

Addressing the media along with 12 other members of the Department of Atomic Energy-constituted Central Experts team, Muthunayagam assured people at Kudankulam “there is no need to have any fear” on the basic safety aspect of the project.  “The public (people in 27 villages close to the plant in particular), will never be affected by any incident in the sub-systems,” he said. The people’s fears on KNPP’s safety “are not based on any scientific and technical aspects.”

The Central Team, in the presence of the other State-panel members including the Tirunelveli District Collector, Dr R Selvaraj and District S P Vijeyandra Bidari, were ready to make presentations .

However, the public representatives led by M Pushparayan walked out after collecting copies of a 40-page DAE team prepared document that addressed most of the anti-nuke protestors’ concerns.

 While keeping the doors for further talks open, Muthunayagam said activists had given a memorandum in the first meeting which contains ‘eight points’. In their ‘fifth point’, they had mentioned ’50 issues’ of concern.

Answering questions, the Central experts said that even from their individual specialist domains, from Tsunami and earthquakes, depletion of fishes, thermal ecology, radiation hazards, to handling nuclear waste, the KNPP reactors was no cause for concern.   

 Dr V Shantha, Chairperson of the Adyar Cancer Institute in Chennai, dispelled fears about radiation effects causing cancer or genetic deformities,  saying there “is no increase in incidence of cancer or risk of cancer”.

Representatives of the ‘People’s Movement Against KNPP’ vowed to continue the agitation against the project.