The People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) urged the Centre, on Saturday, not to go ahead with the expansion activities at the nuclear energy facility in Kalpakkam by constructing more power plants without scientifically establishing that there was no volcanic activity in the Bay of Bengal.
If it has been ascertained that there is no such threat, the scientific papers relating to the studies should be placed in the public domain, PUCL and anti-nuclear activists told a press conference in Chennai.
They flayed the officials of the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) for claiming recently that there was no evidence of a volcano - despite the Smithsonian Global Volcanism programme indicating it - when no scientific study by an independent agency has been carried out so far. Reports of a government agency like the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), which is a wing of India’s nuclear establishment, could not be accepted, the activists said.
They said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the National Disaster Management Agency had wanted a proper study to be undertaken and even the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board had said that a study was on to ascertain if there was a volcano in the sea. Yet, MAPS had claimed that NPCIL has found no volcanic activity, they said.
Among those who addressed the media were V Suresh, PUCL national secretary, and V Pugazhendi of Doctors for Safer Environment. Meanwhile, anti-nuclear activists staged protest demanding the closure of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) and withdrawal of cases against anti-KKNPP protestors.