K’kulam: More posers than answers
May 13, 2013, 7:56 pmThe Indian Supreme Court clearance for the controversial Koodankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu in spite of protests against its commissioning has irked anti-nuclear activists beyond measure. However, it has struck a responsive chord with those who have placed India’s energy needs above everything else, demanding that its nuclear power which accounts for 3.6 per cent of its installed capacity for power generation be increased further to help it compete with world economic powers.
While the Indian government is celebrating its ‘nuclear’ victory over the critics of K’kulam, a veteran Indian journalist has made some startling revelations. In a well-researched article, Koodankulam buried under a heap of lies, first published by our Asia News Network partner, The Statesman (India) and reproduced in this newspaper yesterday, Sam Rajappa, has questioned the wisdom of commissioning that power plant. He points out that the procurement director of ZiO Podolsk, the company from which crucial steam generators and equipment, safety systems and reactor parts were obtained for K’kulam was arrested by Russia’s Federal Security Bureau on charges of corruption and fraud and sourcing substandard steel blankets. The containment building of the Leningrad NPP-2 reactor under construction collapsed exposing the crumbling of steel structures supplied by that company, Rajappa adds. He argues that ‘there could be a large number of equipment, components and materials, besides the ones which failed during the pre-commissioning tests in Koodankulam, whose deficiencies and defects are dormant today, but could cause catastrophic failure when the reactor is operated for some time under high temperature, pressure, high neutron irradiation and thermal stress’. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board of India stands accused of having allowed the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited to ‘go ahead with K’kulam fuel loading without implementing the 17 safety measures recommended by the post-Fukushima task force appointed by the Government of India’. This is a frightening state of affairs.
Strangely, the atomic energy experts in Sri Lanka, the west coast of which is only 240 km away from K’kulam nuclear plant have ignored dissenting views and meekly consented to that project for reasons best known to them. That, in case of a nuclear disaster at K’kulam, the possibility of which cannot be ruled out given what befell Japan’s state-of-the-art Fukushima plant, this country would be affected within a few hours does not seem to be of any concern to them. They are busy vilifying the local critics of K’kulam plant which they apparently consider it their bounden duty to defend. They are sure to take cover behind the aforesaid Indian Supreme Court verdict and try to use it to bolster their claim that the fear of a nuclear disaster at K’kulam is baseless. But, let them be told that the judiciary is not infallible. Here is a case in point. In February this year, Justice K. T. Thomas, who headed a Supreme Court bench that confirmed death sentences for the Rajiv killers told The Times of India: "At a time when the Supreme Court bench headed by me pronounced judgments in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, apparently, we did not consider the nature and character of the accused who were sentenced to death by us. It was only many years thereafter a bench headed by Justice S. B. Sinha pointed out that without considering the nature and character of accused, a death sentence should never be awarded. His judgments mentioned errors in previous SC judgments and that applies to Rajiv Gandhi assassination case."
India, no doubt, is thirsting for cheap power—a lot of it to give a turbo boost to its economy—and its concerns need to be appreciated. But, at the same time, people’s right, both here and in India, to live free from fear of another catastrophe of the magnitude of Chernobyl or Bhopal must be respected and their safety ensured. It is high time the government of Sri Lanka and its nuclear experts plucked up the courage to take up the K’kulam issue with India despite assurances from New Delhi.