the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, may soon be amended. On March 8, 2001, the Nuclear Power Corporation, that owns all the nuclear power plants in India, gave a contract to Power Finance Corporation, a public sector undertaking, to suggest amendments to this act, thus facilitating private participation in the Kaiga atomic power plant in Karnataka.

The Atomic Energy Act insulates the Indian nuclear establishment from public reach and gives exclusive rights to the government to produce electricity from atomic energy. Using this act, the government keeps all the information regarding nuclear establishments inder wraps.

For many years, anti-nuclear activists and environmentalists have been protesting against this Act. "This Act is used to stop flow of information even about civilian establishments concerning safety measures,' says Kavita Chaudhury, a Jaipur-based anti-nuclear activist. Recently, the act came to light when anti-nuclear activists protested against a secret exercise in Pokhran for exploring a nuclear waste-dumping site. "This act is used to conceal even health surveys conducted by different nuclear installations including civilian ones like a power plant,' says Ganghamitra Gadekar, an anti-nuclear activist who recently carried an independent health survey near the site of India's first nuclear tests in 1974.

However, it seems that the amendment to the Act will be limited to the clause that allows only the government or a government company to use