Environmentalists in Gujarat have claimed that the March 5 environmental public hearing (EPH) for the 6,000-MWe nuclear power plant in Saurashtra’s Bhavnagar district will be on the basis of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) by Engineers India Limited, which did not have the necessary accreditation.

Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti, a leading environment action body in Gujarat, has demanded that the public hearing for the project at Mithi Virdi be stopped and the EIA submitted by Engineers India scrapped.

With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's announcement on negotiations for a nuclear energy agreement with Britian, companies from that country are expected to initiate talks with Nuclear Power Corporat

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said nuclear power was an essential component of India's energy mix and he will ensure that the safety and livelihoods of people are not jeopardised in its pursuit.

"We will ensure that the safety and livelihoods of people are not jeopardised in our pursuit of nuclear power," Singh said at a function to confer lifetime achievement awards on four nuclear scientists. Noting that the 2011 Fukushima incident had raised "justifiable" concerns on atomic energy, Singh said, "Even as we implement our power programme, we will continue to ensure that nuclear power remains wholly safe."

In the last lap of its first approach to criticality, the first unit (1000 MWe) of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) in Tamil Nadu is undergoing a battery of tests by engineers of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL).

R.K. Sinha, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, told The Hindu that the NPCIL engineers were busy, performing “high pressure and temperature tests.”
Additional tests

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) on Wednesday asserted in the Supreme Court that no danger will be caused by spent fuel from the Kudankulam nuclear reactor.

Making this submission before a Bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra, Solicitor General Rohinton Nariman said the spent fuel, after being discharged, is reused for generating electricity.

Iran is set to sharply expand its uranium enrichment in an underground plant after installing all the centrifuges it was built for, a UN report said, a move likely to increase Western alarm about T

The Centre on Wednesday maintained in the Supreme Court that for establishment of a desalination plant for Units 1 and 2 of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project, no fresh environmental clearance was required.

Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran made this submission before a Bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra, hearing the Kudankulam case.

The debate over nuclear energy will go on, but the issue with the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) is one of the several illegalities on which it is founded.

In 1988, India inked the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant deal with the former Soviet Union. Two key elements in it were: the highly dangerous and toxic “Spent Nuclear Fuel” (SNF) would be shipped back to the Soviet Union; and the massive volumes of fresh water required to cool the plant would be supplied from Pechiparai dam, in Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) formally granted approval on May 9, 1989 on this basis. But there was no further progress until 1997.

As the mood in Japan, Germany, Italy and even France hardens, China is restarting a £170bn reactor programme and India is looking to atomic power to shore up its creaking grid

The first 1,000 MW unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district, which is just two steps away from reaching criticality, moved further ahead, with the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board early this week giving its nod for closing the reactor pressure vessel, which has already been loaded with 163 bundles of enriched uranium fuel.