Agitation against Atomic Plants with Foreign Assistance

The project at Kudankulam in Tamilnadu is being set up in technical cooperation with the Russtan Federation. The project construction started in 2002 and has reached the commissioning stage. While there was no opposition to the project all along, during the “hotrun” and testing of systems, noise from steam discharge appear to have created fears amongst the local people. This was compounded by the emergency preparedness drill at the site and neighbouring areas to meet regulatory requirement before commissioning. These fears were heightened in view of the Fukushima(Japan) incident. The fears were fuelled further by misinformation spread by anti nuke activists. At Jaitapur in Maharashtra land has been acquired, environmental clearance obtained and site infrastructure works are in progress and project construction is yet to start . The opposition to nuclear power projects at Jaitapur in Maharashtra is largely due to issue related to rehabilitation, apart from apprehensions about safety of nuclear power and effect on livelihood. Pre-project works are underway at Haripur in West Bengal. The Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s office Sh V Narayanasamy gave this information in a written reply to a question by Shri Mohan Singh in Lok Sabha today.