The massive electricity grid failure earlier this week, that left a majority of India in darkness, has impacted the volumes of power generation companies.

The Madras High Court on Thursday reserved orders on a batch of writ petitions for and against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) in Tirunelveli district.

A specially-constituted Division Bench, comprising Justices P. Jyothimani and M. Duraiswamy, reserved orders after the conclusion of arguments. In its written submissions before the court, the Fisherman Care of Old Pallavaram here alleged that the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) had not ubstantially fulfilled many of the conditions stipulated by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board while giving consent for establishing the plant.

Yet another leak has been reported within a month at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) at Rawatbhata near Kota, exposing workers to tritium radiation, and causing concern among the country’s nuclear energy watchers. The senior management at Rawatbhata, a site getting ready for India’s second-biggest Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) with a capacity of 500 tonnes a year, however, has dismissed the leak as a “routine’ matter.

Four maintenance workers were exposed to tritium radiation last Thursday (July 19), while repairing a faulty pipe in PHWR (pressurised heavy water reactor) Unit 4. The earlier incident, which took place on June 23, reportedly exposed more than 40 persons, working on a coolant at Unit 6, to tritium.

Adequate technology and experience are available with the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) for transporting spent fuel from one location to another by rail and road in a safe manner without any public hazard. This was stated in a note when a batch of petitions relating to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) came up before a Division Bench of Justices P. Jyothimani and M. Duraisamy for further hearing on Thursday.

The note, filed through NPCIL counsel Krishna Srinivasan, stated that at Kudankulam, spent fuel from the reactors would be stored in the spent fuel pool designed for the storage of spent fuel assembly.

Condemning the Centr’s decision to go ahead with the proposal to construct third and fourth nuclear reactors at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) site with Russian assistance, the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) has urged Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to take immediate steps to stop the expansion proposal.

A statement from the PMANE said that anti-KKNPP activists, during their meeting with Ms. Jayalalithaa in September, had urged her to take all-out efforts to stop the upcoming nuclear power project as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee did in the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited’s Haripur Nuclear Power Project

An open forum convened by the Haryana government at Gorakhpur village in Fatehabad district, the venue of proposed nuclear plant in the state, ended abruptly on Tuesday after leaders of opposition

Gorakhpur N-plant: Compensation for acquired land to be announced today