An 18-member team of Russian scientists from Atomstroy Export and top NPCIL officials visited the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) in order to speed up the commissioning of Reactor-1.

Atomstroy Export is a Russian engineering company of the state-owned ‘Rosatom’ Corporation involved in constructing nuclear reactors abroad. It has constructed two VVER Reactors, each of 1000 MW at Koodankulam.

CHENNAI: On the occasion of National Immunisation Day on Sunday, over 170 million children were vaccinated against polio in vaccination booths set up across the country. This has been followed by 5 days of door-to-door immunisation activity.

Though the NID is a Government of India initiative, in Chennai groups like the Rotary organised vaccination booths manned by volunteers and located strategically at transit points such as bus stands and railway stations.

KARAIKAL: The Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant will start production in 45 days, Union Minister of State V Narayanasamy said here on Sunday.

CHENNAI: PWD Minister K V Ramalingam on Thursday said that as per the existing agreement, Karnataka could not construct a new dam across Thenpennai river without the consent of the Tamil Nadu Government.

Replying to an issue raised by the Congress, CPI and CPM in this regard in the State Assembly, the Minister said the Tamil Nadu Government had written to the Karnataka Government seeking an explanation for the reports about the new dam.

CHENNAI: Two temblors and a tsunami alert on Wednesday sent people into a tizzy as they rushed out of offices, shopping malls and homes choking roads and clogging airwaves with panic phone calls.

CHENNAI: The Institute of Town Planners India (ITPI), Tamil Nadu chapter, has urged the state government to constitute a technical advisory group of eminent citizens for Chennai Municipal Corporation, and other major cities, to advise on sustainable development.

ITPI secretary R Shivakumar told Express after the release of a newsletter ‘Planners’ that the recommendations had been submitted to the government after a workshop was held to mark the golden jubilee of the institute.

CHENNAI: This weekend, the lake at Mudichur in Tambaram, which usually wears a deserted look, saw an unusual clean-up crew at work. Along with students in T-shirts and caps scouring the water like treasure hunters, were 42 Marines from the guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker that is currently docked at Chennai for a joint Indo-US military exercise.

Armed with cleaning implements, the marines and students — over 60 of them from various schools and colleges across the city – fished out polythene, rubber, thermocol and other environmentally harmful materials from the highly polluted lake.

CHENNAI: The Union government is looking into Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s demand for allocation of entire power to be generated from the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) to Tamil Nadu, Minister of State in the PMO, V Narayanasamy, said here on Friday.

Speaking to reporters, Narayanasamy said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is considering the representation and added that he would also take up the issue with him. “I am aware of the power shortage in Tamil Nadu,” he said. However, he did not say when a decision could be expected.

After securing first rank in providing potable water to rural habitations along with a special bonus, Tamil Nadu has been rated number one by the Water Resources Ministry in implementing rain water harvesting projects.

According to the Ministry data, TN has had the maximum chunk of recharging structures implemented during the XI plan. The State has 273 recharge structures, the highest among all states.

A 65-year-old farmer from Tirupur is being treated for swine flu (H1N1) in the isolation ward of the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH).

Pommu Naiker of Nathakattupudur in Ward 19 of Tirupur Corporation was confirmed to be infected by the H1N1 virus at a private hospital in Coimbatore on Tuesday night. He was brought to the CMCH around 10 p.m. The test was done at a private laboratory.