JOIN US Vowing to take their struggle against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) in Tamil Nadu to its “logical end,” protesters against the Russian-aided 2,000 MW project on Monday charged the Central scientists’ panel with ducking at least four vital issues affecting the people.
On critical issues such as accident liability and compensation, changing of N-plant site, extent of routine nuclear waste and KNPP’s fresh water demands in the extreme event of a meltdown, the panel headed by Dr Muthunayagam and set up by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has so far said nothing, S P Udayakumar, anti-KNPP struggle committee’s convener, told a news conference here on Monday.
Alleging that the Indian nuclear scientists had “shifted” the plant site at Kudankulam in Tirunelveli district from where the Russians had initially suggested as comparatively safer from the geological stability point of view, Udayakumar and other members of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) said, people had the right to know how the Indian side overcame objections raised by the Russian firm on such a crucial issue.
Ever since the struggle came into limelight in September last year, this is for the first time that the PMANE took their fight from Kudankulam to the state capital, Chennai, even as they knocked at the door of Chief Minister J Jayalalitha for an appointment.