Submit petition to Collector demanding its closure

Around 250 children from the coastal hamlets in Tirunelveli district submitted a petition to Collector R. Selvaraj during the weekly grievance day meeting held at the Collectorate on Monday demanding the trashing of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP). The children, accompanied by a few ladies from their hamlets — Idinthakarai, Koodankulam, Koottapuli, Perumanal and Kooththenkuzhi — said in the petition that the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, after ignoring the year-long protest by their parents and elders of their villages, was establishing nuclear reactors near their hamlets without conducting the mandatory disaster management exercise and eliciting public opinion.

Taking the tussle between Tamil Nadu and Kerala over Koodankulam Atomic ower Plant project to the next level, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has met Union Power Minister Veerappa Moily to demand an increased share from the project for Kerala.

Citing that Kerala is going through a severe power crisis due to the weak South-West monsoon, Chandy has requested the Power Minister to raise the state’s allocation of power to at least 500 MW instead of the expected 266 MW as per the Gadgil formula.

The Kudankulam atomic power project is expected to be commissioned in September, capping months of delays due to non-availability of equipment and anti-nuclear protests.

India's nuclear regulator is inspecting the first 1,000 MW unit of the nearly Rs. 16,000 crore project, being developed with Russian collaboration, and is expected to give its report in the next few days.

Get out of nuclear power and do it fast, angry Fukushima residents told Japanese government officials on Wednesday at a public hearing on energy policy held in an area ravaged by a nuclear disaster

Activists citing concerns about the fate of local residents in the event of an accident at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant received a boost from an unexpected source with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh questioning the Department of Atomic Energy’s decision to waive its legal right to claim damages against the NPP’s Russian suppliers.

On Thursday, NDTV disclosed that Dr. Singh, who is also the Minister for Atomic Energy, has objected to a request by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. — the operator of the Kudankulam facility — to waive its right to recourse under Section 17 of the Nuclear Liability Act if an accident in the yet-to-be-built units 3 and 4 results from faulty equipment.

Tens of thousands of people protested against nuclear power plants outside Japan's parliament on Sunday.

Strong expansion of nuclear power as a carbon-free energy source in Asia is expected to press ahead despite the Fukushima accident in Japan that soured sentiment in some countries, a benchmark repo