By Garima Rani:
The chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalitha, has finally given her approval to resume the construction work of the Russian-built Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNP), located 650 km from Chennai in Tamil Nadu, after her earlier opposition on the issue. But still there are many people who are not in favour of the installation of this nuclear power plant in the Tirunevelli district of Tamil Nadu. These include public of Tamil Nadu especially the local people of nearby area (fishermen) of the KKNPP, many activists including S. P. Udhayakumar and M Pushparayan of the People’s Movement Against the Nuclear energy (PMANE). They have gathered in coastal area and are on infinite hunger strike. Women and children have also gathered to lend their support to the movement.
The people are worried about how safe the plant will be after seeing Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear disaster and have fear about the environmental impact of nuclear power plant, leak of the radiations and the radioactive wastes. Those protesters are demanding to make the safety analysis report and the site evaluation study public so that everyone can come to know about it, whether it is really safe or not.
The KKNP will be affecting the people of nearby areas. By a report it has come to know that there are more than 1.2 million people live nearby 150 villages and towns in the radius of 30 km. Moreover the local people of that area have to leave their houses. The protesters are also demanding the government that for those 30 km nearby area, to provide accommodation and employment.
The former president of India, Sh. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, after inspecting the whole matter, had said that the power plant was absolutely safe but failed to convince those agitating against the commissioning of the facility.
By the establishment of the power plant, we can generate cheap energy and can replace power plants using non-renewable resources of energy. Like in many places in India, still we are dependent on the thermal power plants which use million tons of coal as fuel every year individually. On the basis of the analysis, we can have energy generated at the rate of less than 3 INR per KWhr.
If government is spending 13,000 crore INR on the nuclear power plant, then there would be some benefit out of that in terms of money and power. By taking the confusion of the people into consideration about the plant, the government should provide all the data and the information about the plant from which it can be guaranteed that there is no harm in establishing Kudankulam nuclear power plant. Moreover the people should be provided with proper and confirmed accommodation with jobs. Along with that there should be proper disposal of the radioactive wastes so that it won’t harm any living being and affect the environment.
After some years we won’t have much of the fossil fuels and the other non-renewable resources with us, on which we are dependent today. So we have to start using other resources so that stress decreases on the non-renewable sources of energy. Nuclear energy is clean energy, does not cause air pollution at all. Nuclear fuel is greener than coal. Besides these, some demerits are also there like these produces radio-active wastes which can cause serious problems.