SRIKAKULAM: The Andhra Intellectuals Forum founder president Chalasani Srinivas, Andhra Intellectuals Forum president Professor G. Appalanaidu, CPI district executive member Chapara Sundaralal, CPM district secretary D. Govindarao, and Congress district president Sanapala Annajirao demanded the cancellation of the proposed construction of Kovvada Nuclear Park in Srikakulam district.
Speaking at a press conference in Srikakulam, they said the nuclear power plant originally planned for Mithivirdi in Gujarat was shifted to Kovvada in Andhra Pradesh after people in Gujarat opposed it, and said if Prime Minister Modi wanted, he should set it up in Gujarat itself. They stated that even a small accident caused by natural disasters, human error, or machinery failure would devastate the region from Kakinada to Chatrapur in Odisha, contaminating land, water, and air, and costing millions of lives. They said radiation from the nuclear park would poison soil, water, air, and food, leading to cancer and other deadly diseases, and children would be born with deformities.
Later, they condemned the decision to set up a nuclear park in densely populated Kovvada, destroying fertile agricultural lands.
The advanced nations including the USA, Germany, and Japan are shutting down nuclear plants, they added.
They recalled that after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, the USA did not build new nuclear plants, and after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 in Ukraine, the area became uninhabitable.