The Centre on Thursday asserted that the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant was safe enough to withstand a Fukushima-type disaster but the Supreme Court said it would not hesitate to stop the project irrespective of the amount of money spent on it if the installation was found wanting in safety aspects.
During the hearing on a petition filed by G Sundarrajan alleging that 17 safety recommendations by the Centre’s own task force had not been fully implemented, counsel Prashant Bhushan told a bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra that the government’s only concern was to make the nuclear power plant operational as it had spent a huge amount of money on the power project.
The bench said, “Everyone is concerned about the safety and lives of people living around the Kudankulam nuclear power plant. The entire country is concerned. Spending of huge money is not a constraint for the court to stop the project if it finds that the installation posed threat to the lives of people.”
When Bhushan raised the issues of discharge of warm, used water into the sea from the plant and nuclear liability issue in addition to the non-implementation of 17 safety recommendations as well as disaster management in case of nuclear accident, additional solicitor general Mohan Parasaran said the Madras High Court had considered these concerns in detail before allowing commissioning of the plant.
But the bench said, “It is a serious matter and we have to consider all the issues related to the safety aspect.” It posted the matter for further hearing on October 4 after attorney general G E Vahanvati and solicitor general R F Nariman said the government would satisfy the court that the nuclear power plant was completely safe.
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd, which runs the plant, said in an affidavit, “The plant is completely safe when it comes to washing away of the safety units due to flooding, as it happened in the case of Fukushima. KKNPP is a 3+ generation nuclear power plant and its design incorporates advanced safety features complying with current standards of redundancy, reliability, independence and prevention of common cause failures in its safety system.”
It added, “The design includes provisions for withstanding external events like earthquake, tsunami/storm, tidal waves, cyclones, shock waves, aircraft impact on main building and fire. As regard to the vulnerability of KNPP to terrorists attacks, sabotage etc, it has elaborate physical security arrangements in place to ensure its security. The structural design of the facilities at KNPP ensures that in the event of a physical attack, the structure would prevent the release of any radioactivity into the public domain.”
It further said, “In case of nuclear reactors, even in the remote likelihood of these being breached, it would automatically shut down. KNPP is absolutely safe without the 17 recommendations, recommended out of abundant caution by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board. This, however, does not mean that the 17 recommendations made by AERB will not be complied with. Seven of the 17 recommendations have already been complied with. The remaining 10 will be complied with within the stipulated time frame.”
3 activists from Japan deported
Three Japanese nationals, who arrived in Chennai to participate in the ongoing protest against the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, were deported from the Chennai airport on Tuesday. Immigration officials at the airport kept a watch on the Japanese after receiving a tip-off from central intelligence agencies about their arrival and sent them back.
