World Peace - Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia

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Koodankulam: So Many Questions, So Few Answers —KumKum Dasgupta Dear Sisters and Brothers of Russia: Greetings! We, several thousands of children from the southernmost tip of India are writing to you to send our love and seek your support for the peaceful and nonviolent struggle that we and our parents have been waging for the past twelve months against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project. This mega nuclear power park is being built with Russian loan and technology against the will and wishes of the local people. The Indian authorities have not conducted any public hearing to seek our permission or consent for this project. They have not shared the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Report, the Site Evaluation Study, and the Safety Analysis Report with our people. After a long and hard struggle of more than 22 years, we have just obtained a copy of the EIA report which is outdated and so full of inaccuracies and incomplete information. (edited excerpt) —“The Koodankulam Children”, C/O People’s Movement against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), Tamil Nadu, India Since the beginning of 2011, Koodankulam, a place in the Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu, has been up in arms against a nuclear plant that the Indian government is building there. The protests reached a crescendo in September 2012, when the protesters were surrounded and beaten up by the police while they stood in sea waters forming a human chain off nearby Indinthakarai coast. So what is this fight all about? The protesters claim 28 | Bhavan Australia | August 2012 that the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) flouts many rules and the protesters have given 12 reasons why they don’t want it to be built there. 1. Where is the Green Clearance? The reactors are being set up without sharing the Environmental Impact Assessment, Site Evaluation Study and Safety Analysis Report with the people. 2. The Displacement Issue: According to the government, the area between 2 to 5 km radius around the plant site would be called the “sterilization zone.” So what happens to the people who stay there? 3. Safety Aspects: More than 1 million people live within the 30 km radius of the project which far exceeds the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board stipulations. How will the government move them out quickly in case of a disaster? 4. The Future of The Fishing Industry: The coolant water and low-grade waste from the project are going to be dumped into the sea. This will have a severe impact on fish production and catch and impact the economic situation of the fisherfolk. 5. Polluting Their Lives: Even if the project functions normally, it would still be emitting Iodine 131, 132, 133, Cesium 134, 136, 137 isotopes, strontium, tritium, tellurium and other such radioactive particles into our air, land, crops, cattle, sea, seafood and ground water. Who will pay for the health costs of the affected people?
6. Question Mark on Quality: There are international concerns about the design, structure and workings of the untested Russian-made VVER- 1000 reactors. 7. Coastal Questions: A couple of months ago it was announced that the central government had decided not to give permission to KKNPP 3-6 as they were violating the Coastal Regulation Zone stipulations. So what about KKNPP 1 and 2? 8. Assurances Don’t Mean Anything: Many leaders and bureaucrats have tried to reassure the agitating population that there would be no natural disasters in the area. How can anyone be sure? 9. Terror Threats: Senior Indian leaders have often warned that the country’s atomic establishments continue to remain prime targets of the terrorist groups and outfits. 10. Who pays in Case of A Disaster: The important issue of liability for the Russian plants has not been settled yet. Defying the Indian nuclear liability law, Russia insists that the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA), secretly signed in 2008 by the Indian and Russian governments, precedes the liability law and that Article 13 of the IGA clearly establishes that the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited is responsible for all claims of damages. 11. Increasing Costs: In 1988, the authorities said that the cost estimate of the Koodakulam 1 and 2 projects was INR 6,000 crore. In 1998, it became INR 15,500. In 2001, the ministerial group for economic affairs announced that the project cost would be INR 13,171 crore and the Indian government would invest INR 6,775 crore with the remainder amount coming in as Russian loan with 4% interest. The fuel cost was estimated to be INR 2,129 crore which would be Russian loan. No one knows the 2011 figures of any of these expenses. So what’s the final amount? 12. No Lessons Learnt? The March 11, 2011, disaster in Fukushima has made it all too clear to the whole world that nuclear power plants are prone to natural disasters and no one can really predict their occurrence. Switzerland has decided to shun nuclear power technology. In a recent referendum, some 90% of Italians have voted against nuclear power in their country. Both the US and Russia have not built a new reactor in their countries for 2-3 decades ever since major accidents occurred at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. With such uncomfortable questions facing it, the government response has been typically bureaucratic. In a TV interview with CNN-IBN on September 10, Central Minister V Narayanswamy said that multiple probes by scientists have shown that there is no threat to the people who stay near the plant. A clean chit has also come from APJ Abdul Kalam and the panel that was set up by the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, he added. KumKum Dasgupta is a New Delhi-based journalist August 2012 | Bhavan Australia | 29
Page 2 and 3: Promoting Non-Violence in Practice
Page 4 and 5: For thisMonth Mahatma Gandhi Says:
Page 6 and 7: Contents 16 12 48 Significance of B
Page 8 and 9: Meditation The nuclear family syste
Page 10 and 11: would curb his actions and feelings
Page 12 and 13: Census Stats on Punjabis, Hindus, S
Page 14 and 15: Australia-India Literatures Interna
Page 16 and 17: Timeless Appeal A Simple Man from I
Page 18 and 19: Mahatma Gandhi Mahatma Gandhi on Ti
Page 20 and 21: Low Salt Syndrome There seems to be
Page 22 and 23: 22 | Bhavan Australia | July 2012 P
Page 24 and 25: mulations and processes are in prog
Page 26 and 27: Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer Jesus pro
Page 30 and 31: Medicine: An Ayurvedic Understandin
Page 32 and 33: mechanism of action) is vital. Guna
Page 34 and 35: The proportionate presence of the f
Page 36 and 37: Mother Teresa “Be faithful in sma
Page 38 and 39: Sri Aurobindo Ghose India is the me
Page 40 and 41: Maharshi Vyasa and the Puranas Trad
Page 42 and 43: multiplying creation. They are met
Page 44 and 45: 4. Mumukshatva—purification of th
Page 46 and 47: Tam evam vidvan amritamiha bhavati
Page 48 and 49: Some Rare photographs from past Pri
Page 50 and 51: Gandhi family Indira Gandhi Sonia G
Page 52 and 53: Old? Who is Old? If you happen to b
Page 54 and 55: Spiritual United Nations Spiritual
Page 56 and 57: Scriptures—Vedas Upanishads, Pura
Page 58 and 59: The Upanishads centre round the ete
Page 60 and 61: India’s Frugal Dynamism New Delhi
Page 62 and 63: The Vedas, the Root of All Our reli
Page 64 and 65: Crippled Pakistan New Delhi: The pr
Page 66 and 67: Rajiv Gandhi “India is an Old cou
Page 68 and 69: Is Inequality Inhibiting Growth? Ch
Page 70 and 71: Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit Difficulties,
Page 72 and 73: India Notebook —K Ghosh Going the
Page 74 and 75: Travel Diary Australia is a country
Page 76 and 77: Ratnamandana Weds They saw the farm
Page 78 and 79:
From Bhavan’s Journal July 8, 196
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