CHENNAI: Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) chairman and managing director Bhuwan Chandra Pathak is likely to visit Tamil Nadu and discuss with the Chief Secretary, the need to build a nuclear waste storage facility — Away from Reactor (AFR) — at Kudankulam without any hurdles.
The NPCIL had recently floated tenders for construction of AFR for Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) units 3 and 4. Since then, chorus against the project has been building with anti-Kudankulam activists and local people expressing safety concerns. The issue also took a political turn with AIADMK coordinator O Pannerselvam questioning the “silence of Chief Minister MK Stalin” and urging him to take immediate steps to stall the project.
Sources told TNIE that Stalin will be to writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a day or two seeking his urgent intervention in the matter. Earlier, DMK’s Lok Sabha MP TR Baalu had written a detailed letter to the PM saying storing of spent nuclear fuel at the nuclear plant site will be have adverse consequences for people and environment.
The Supreme Court, while disposing of the civil appeal filed by environmental activist G Sundarrajan against the KKNPP, had observed: “Storing of spent nuclear fuel at nuclear plant site will, in the long run, pose a dangerous, long-term health and environmental risk. NPCIL and the Union of India are bound to look at the probabilities of potentially harmful events and the consequences in future.
Noticeably, NPCIL does not seem to have a long term plan, other then, stating and hoping that in the near future, it would establish a Deep Geological Repository (DGR).” In 2013, the court directed concerned authorities to take effective steps to have a permanent DGR at the earliest so that apprehension voiced by the people over AFR could be dispelled.
Baalu said even after passage of several years, the Union government is yet to evolve a plan for DGR. “The Supreme Court had categorically said that spent nuclear fuel should not be permanently stored within the Kudankulam nuclear plant site. Therefore establishing AFR at Kudankulam is in violation of the Supreme Court’s directions.”
Meanwhile, former chief minister Panneerselvam said if AFR is constructed at Kudankulam, there is a possibility for depositing nuclear wastes from other States here.
“Though it is the duty and responsibility of the Tamil Nadu government to oppose this project, it has been maintaining silence on this issue and due to this silence, people are afraid whether the State government has given green signal for this AFR,” he pointed out.
“The 2,000 MW of nuclear power generated from the Kudankulam plant is shared by Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry Union Territory and 15 per cent of the generated power goes to the Central pool also. As such, it would be appropriate to set up the AFR or DGR in a place away from TN,” Panneerselvam said.