At the same time, Ramesh said a Committee is reviewing environmental procedures in power plants and refineries located in the coastal areas to assess how the country is equipped to deal with emergencies like the Fukushima nuclear crisis.
"It(Jaitapur) stays. There is no re-think. What happened in Fukushima is a wake up call for all of us. We have to draw an intelligent limit. We have set up a committee to review all environmental procedures in power plants and refineries which are located in the country's coastal areas.
This is to assess how equipped we are to deal with emergencies like this (Fukushima)," Ramesh, who was in Mumbai to discuss various issues related to environmental clearances for projects undertaken in Maharashtra, told mediapersons.
Ramesh also made it clear there is no question of the country abandoning nuclear power. "We need nuclear power as an alternative source of energy. India cannot abandon nuclear power. We have three per cent of our electricity generated from nuclear sources, now we have to increase it to 6 per cent by 2020 and roughly 14 per cent by 2030," he said.
Stressing that nuclear power is the best option he added that "I have not called for a re-think (of the 9,900 MW Jaitapur project),I have called for a deeper thinking." The minister said that he had suggested to the Central government not to interlink security systems of all the six reactors at Jaitapur plant.
"However, we need to think of separate safety system for every unit. We are looking at the safety issues. The units must be independent of each other to avoid a situation such as the recent nuclear disaster in Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan," Ramesh said.
Ramesh said the Ministry of Environment and Forests was not the authority to look into the aspects of radioactivity and those will have to be dealt by the project implementing authority Nuclear Power Corporation of India and the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board.
However, issues relating to safety of environment will have to be complied with by the NPCIL. "If we feel that there is a need for additional safety measures, the authority will have to comply with it," he said.
The Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project, coming up in Ratnagiri district of coastal Konkan region in collaboration with French company Areva, has been strongly opposed by the locals as well as major opposition parties such as the Shiv Sena and many non-government organisations on concerns of dangers of a radioactive leak, if takes place, in an ecologically sensitive area like Ratnagiri.
Responding to growing opposition to the project, Ramesh said there was a need to increase mutual trust and confidence in public.
