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.

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.

Things are going on smoothly and the loading of enriched uranium fuel into the first reactor at Kudankulam is expected to begin by the middle of this month.

This was stated by Chairman and Managing Director of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) K.C. Purohit. “Our inspection [of the reactor pressure vessel] is almost complete,” he said from Mumbai. “We will submit our observations and reports to a committee of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and load the fuel based on its decision.”

“The board gave the consent after fully satisfying itself”

The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) gave its consent for operating the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project on July 23, its counsel submitted before the Madras High Court on Wednesday. During the resumed hearing of a batch of petitions before a specially-constituted Division Bench, comprising Justices P. Jyothimani and M. Duraiswamy, counsel Rita Chandrasekar said that the board gave the consent after fully satisfying itself and due inspection.

Production of electricity from the Koodankulam nuclear power plant could start within the next month, according to Minister of State in the PMO, V Narayanasamy.

Speaking at the airport, en route to his customary weekend visit to Puducherry on Saturday, Narayanasamy said that the safety committee appointed by the Centre was “almost done” with their inspection.

The Rs. 14,000-crore nuclear power project at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu is likely to be commissioned on August 25 if the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) gives its nod for a trial-run by this month-end.

Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) V. Narayanasamy told The Hindu on Tuesday August 25 was fixed tentatively for commissioning the 1,000-MW first unit, as the AERB’s clearance for a trial-run was in the final stages.

With the technology hurdle no longer in the way, India is readying thorium supplies to fuel its pilot advanced heavy water reactor (AHWR) that is currently in the works.

A fact-finding team of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has concluded that the no offsite emergency preparedness exercise was held for the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP), and that the Tirunelveli district administration’s claim that such a drill was successfully done was untrue.

PUCL national secretary V. Suresh told a press conference here on Saturday that what the district authorities conducted in the name of an emergency preparedness exercise at Nakkaneri, a hamlet seven km from KKNPP on June 9, comprising three stages, was mere eyewash.

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).

Two workers at the Rawatbhata Atomic Power Station in Rajasthan have suffered exposure to high doses of radioactive tritium and are under observation.

The incident took place on June 23 at Unit 5 of the plant during routine maintenance work."There was no abnormal release of radioactivity to the environment," Nalinish Nagaich, Executive Director, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited said from Mumbai.