Kudankulam nuclear power plant set to roll in six weeks

NEW DELHI: The controversy-hit Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu is set to be operationalized, with its first 1,000mw unit to be opened soon as the project's safety audits have been completed and local resistance now reduced to a few hundred protesters.

While the report of the expert group set up by the Tamil Nadu government is awaited, the state government is more supportive of the project being commissioned and the Centre's action against NGOs alleged to have diverted foreign funds to fuel the stir is seen a precursor to the plant being activated.

"I am hopeful of moving forward. The expert committees have done their job. Safety issues have been addressed. The plant's first unit can be in working order once we are able to move in the required staff," Srikumar Banerjee, secretary at the department of atomic energy, told ToI.

The head of India's nuclear establishment said it will not be easy to outline a timeframe, but the process of loading fuel can get underway once the atomic energy regulatory board is consulted. "The plant has been idle and so the AERB will lay down guidelines. Once these are followed, the plant will generate power," Banerjee said.

The two units are "99% and 94%" ready, according to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India and it is estimated that the first unit can be up and running within six to eight weeks.

MoS in PMO V Narayanasamy has said that the NGOs that have been banned were channeling funds meant for sectors like health and education for sustaining the anti-nuclear protests.

The prolonged standoff at the plant site had led to a 100 staff being allowed to access the project site in two batches daily. This has made keeping the plant in running order difficult as a nuclear installation cannot be switched off in the manner of a conventional factory. The plant needs to be tended to by 3,000 workers, scientists and technicians to get it going.

But Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's decisive intervention in stating that foreign NGOs insensitive to India's developmental needs were backing the stir and the government's action in banning three groups indicates a resolve to end the stalemate.

The decision follows some quiet exchanges between the centre and state government and spadework in the project area where fishing communities have been leading the agitation. The role of church organizations, perhaps worried that the project might reduce their influence, were active in opposing the plant.

The government has reached out to the church groups and sought to convince them that the plant has some of the best safety equipment available globally. Talks with anti-nuclear groups did not, however, make much headway with officials claiming that the protestors were fundamentally opposed to nuclear power and did not set much store by the government's assurances.

The move against NGOs is seen as a last resort as the UPA has been sensitive about not getting into a confrontation with such groups although it has had a showdown with sections of civil society like the Anna Hazare movement.

It is significant that the Tamil Nadu government, which has been concerned about local reactions, has not contradicted the PM's remarks on the role of foreign funds being diverted from the purposes that they were received. A home ministry probe is understood to have established the diversion of funds.

Centre gives TN nuclear power boost

Even as the group protesting Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) upped the ante, the department of atomic energy (DAE) announced Tuesday it would add two more reactors to Kalpakkam Nuclear Plant in an effort to bridge the energy demand-supply gap.

The 500 MW fast-breeder reactors would have additional safety systems and were part of a series of nuclear reactors gearing up across the country to produce 20,000 MWe by 2020, S.C. Chetal, director, IGCAR, Kalpakkam, said.

Several states are queuing up with requests to DAE to set up nuke plants and are offering sites.
“The rush is more from states that are not able to meet their energy needs. We have potential sites at Hisar in Haryana, in Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal,” Dr Chetal told reporters after inaugurating an awareness campaign on nuclear energy at Sathyabama University in Chennai.

“The next two reactors at Kalpakkam will have improved safety features and better economics than the prototype fast-breeder reactor, which is actually the first of the 500 MWe designed in the country by IGCAR. The lessons we have learnt in design, construction and licensing will help us minimize cost and improve safety,” he said.

The IGCAR chief said four pressurised heavy water reactors for 700 MWe units were under construction. Two reactors of 1,000 MW each were expected to come up at Koodankulam soon, he said. “We will have several 700 MW units.”

Dr Chetal’s confidence about DAE stepping up the nuke power programme possibly stems from clear indications by the Tamil Nadu government that it would soon act against the Koodankulam demonstrators.

State panel to submit report in a few days

The TN government expert committee to study KKNPP safety has started drafting its report and would present it to CM J Jayalalithaa in the next few days, convener S Iniyan said.

“We have started writing our report. We have collected relevant papers from officials of the plant and also gathered enough information during our visit there,” the director of institute of energy studies, Anna Univerisity, said.

Union minister V. Narayanasamy said now that the state-appointed panel was getting its report ready there was hope the project would commence without further delay.

“All people of Tamil Nadu want the project. This will be done soon, as the government of Tamil Nadu and the Centre are working in tandem to start the project, which is the safest in the world,” he said.

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