Taking forward their opposition to the Jaitapur nuclear power project in Maharashtra, a group of opposition parties led by the Left on Sunday wrote to the Prime Minister demanding cancellation of t

The National Committee in Solidarity with Jaitapur Struggle — a group of like-minded political people opposed to setting up nuclear power projects — has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to cancel the proposed plant in the coastal town of Maharashtra.

Citing concerns over the safety of the proposed reactors at Jaitapur and the financial credentials of the French company building them, the Committee has said the Centre and the Maharashtra government do not seem to have paid due attention to the serious objections raised by experts, parliamentarians, public figures and the local people.

New Delhi India may soon set up a new company to acquire uranium mines in foreign countries to ensure fuel supplies to its burgeoning nuclear power programme.

The Atomic Energy Commission has recommended setting up of a joint venture company between Nuclear Power Corporation of India and Uranium Corporation of India to explore the possibility of acquiring uranium assets abroad, minister of state in the PMO V Narayanasamy informed the Rajya Sabha.

Protest initiation of projects without consultation with locals

A people’s hearing on nuclear energy held in the Capital on Wednesday criticised the Government’s nuclear energy policy and demanded that repression of people’s movements struggling against nuclear energy projects be stopped with immediate effect. Residents belonging to Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu, Jaitapur in Maharashtra, Fatehabad in Haryana, Haripur in West Bengal, Chutka in Madhya Pradesh, and Rawatbhata and Banswara in Rajasthan joined activists associated with the struggle in these parts in condemning the Indian Government and political parties of initiating projects without consulting the local populace or taking their consent.

Eminent geophysicist Vinod K. Gaur has described as “flawed” the earthquake hazard assessment study carried out for the proposed Jaitapur nuclear power plant.

After the prolonged agitation against the Kudankulam project in Tamil Nadu, which is therefore behind schedule, Nuclear Power Corporation says it is trying to reach out to people to allay their apprehensions.

The government had in October 2009 given in-principle approval to develop new projects at Kovvada in Andhra (3,000 Mw), Chhaya Mithi Virdi in Gujarat (2,200 Mw), Gorakhpur in Haryana (1,400 Mw), Chutka in Madhya Pradesh (1,400 Mw), Jaitapur in Maharashtra (3,300 Mw) and Haripur in West Bengal (2,000 Mw).

On Board PM's Special Aircraft: The new French President Francois Hollande has pledged to continue France's strategic partnership with India with same vigour as his predecessors Jacques Chirac and

India hopes to clinch later this year a deal with France for multiple nuclear energy units at Jaitapur in Maharashtra to produce 9,900 MW of power.

"Negotiations are going on and are progressing well. We hope to seal the deal later this year," official sources said referring to the proposed pact involving six nuclear power units of 1,650 MW each. "We have not yet achieved the financial closure for the deal," the sources said. The technology for the power plants is proposed by French energy major Areva which has already entered into pacts with state-run Nuclear

AREVA Solar, an AREVA subsidiary, has been awarded a contract by Reliance Power to build a 250 MW concentrated solar power (CSP) in Rajasthan.

AREVA said under the contract, it will build two 125 MW CSP plants using its Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) technology and will provide construction management services for the project. The first phase of the project is under construction, with a target commercial operation date of May 2013.