Nuclear Energy

L&T and Bharat Forge to provide nuclear components for Jaitapur reactors. dccxii In January 2009,
even before it signed the formal agreement with the Indian government for supply of its EPR
reactors, Areva signed an agreement with Bharat Forge, India's biggest forging company, to build a
manufacturing facility for heavy forgings in India by 2012. dccxiii
Presently, nuclear power production in India is under government control and only NPCIL
can set up and run nuclear power plants. However, the law is very likely to be amended soon to
allow the entry of private players. The Economic Survey of 2008-09 has already aired the view that
the Atomic Energy Act needs to be amended to permit private corporate investment in nuclear
power. dccxiv In anticipation, big Indian conglomerates like Reliance, Tata, GMR and Essar have
begun preparations to set up and own nuclear plants. dccxv
In the mad world of capitalism, profits is all that matters, even if it means afflicting and
killing tens of thousands of people with the most terrible diseases for centuries. In Charlie Chaplin's
epic black comedy film Monsieur Verdoux made in 1947, Henri Verdoux is accused of making a
business out of robbing and killing unsuspecting women. Verdoux, in his reply, says: “As for being
a mass killer, does not the world encourage it? Is it not building weapons of destruction for the sole
purpose of mass killing? Has it not blown unsuspecting women and little children to pieces? And
done it very scientifically? As a mass killer, I am an amateur by comparison.” Chaplin in this film
was referring to the weapons of mass destruction used by both the sides during the Second World
War. Nuclear reactors are even bigger weapons of mass destruction than the biggest bombs used
during the Second World War!
Nuclear Policy: Part of Globalisation
For their narrow interests of profits and commissions, India's rulers are willing to condemn
people living in the area around nuclear plants to suffer from all kinds of terrible diseases and give
birth to deformed children for thousands of years! Their greed has made them so shortsighted that
they are willing to even risk a nuclear accident – which can render huge areas of the country
uninhabitable for centuries, and which, if it is a big accident like Cherbnobyl, can put at risk the
very future of human civilisation, if not in the world, at least in India!!
Why is the Indian government mortgaging the interests of the people of the country to benefit
big foreign and Indian corporations? It's actually been happening for the last two decades, since
1991 to be more precise, when under World Bank-IMF pressure, the government of India decided
to restructure the Indian economy. The Indian economy was trapped in an external debt crisis, and
taking advantage of this, India's foreign creditors, the USA and other developed countries – also
known as the imperialist countries because they are seeking to re-establish their control over the
economies of the third world countries that they had once colonised – through the World Bank and
the IMF (which are controlled by them), arm-twisted the Indian government into agreeing to this
restructuring. dccxvi The basic elements of this were:
� Open up the economy to unrestricted inflows of foreign capital and imports;
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