A German woman journalist and her colleague have been detained for trying to proceed to Idinthakarai, the hub of protests against Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, and record the views of the locals, police said.
Taking a cue from 'Jal Satyagraha' activists in Madhya Pradesh, opponents of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant today threatened to stand in the sea off Idianthakarai coast from Thursday as a stepped-up form of agitation.
Police on Monday fired teargas shells to disperse anti-nuclear protesters, who again tried to lay siege to the nuclear power plant in Kudankulam demanding a halt to the loading of enriched uranium in the reactor.
The Madras high court on Friday gave its nod to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project, clearing the decks for the fuel loading and commissioning of unit 1 of the controversy-hit Indo-Russian project.
The much-delayed Kudankulam project is set to be commissioned within the next two weeks as nuclear scientists have entered the final lap of a series of tests on its safety and efficacy.
"Public safety is of prime importance. There are poor people living in the vicinity of the plant and they should know that there life would be protected," a bench of justices KS Radhakrishanan and Deepak Misra said while posting the matter for hearing on September 20
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said the Kudankulam Nuclear Power plant, whose commissioning has been stalled due to protests, cannot be allowed to remain "idle" when the nation has sunk an amount of Rs 14,000 crore on the project.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi has said that all viewpoints have to be taken into account before starting any work on the disputed Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu. "I have already mentioned that an all-party meeting must be convened to discuss the issue. But it was not done and instead an assembly session was called. By convening an all-party meeting, we get different views on the subject and that is what we have missed, I feel," added Karunanidhi.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will on Friday meet an all-party delegation from Tamil Nadu to discuss the state administrations' concerns over the Kudankulam nuclear project. He will meet the delegation at his residence in 7 Race Course Road in Delhi to dispel apprehensions about the safety of the nuclear project. The delegation will be headed by Tamil Nadu Finance Minister O Paneerselvam, who will present a memorandum to the prime minister.
The Supreme Court on Monday sought response from the Centre and Atomic Energy Regulatory Board on implementation of safety guidelines issued by it for the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu.
Jaishankar said he was confident that Prime Minister Modi and President Putin will meet for an annual summit next year.
A group of Non-Governmental Organisation and social activists on Monday approached the Supreme Court seeking a direction to make it binding on the Russian company involved in setting up of the controversial Kudankulam nuclear power plant to pay damages in case of an incident.
A day after an explosion at a village near Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, Tirunelvei claimed six lives, police formed a team to probe it and stepped up security even as two live bombs were recovered from the area.
The controversy-hit Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project will start its production by the first week of December and the first tranche of entire 1,000 MW of power will go to Tamil Nadu, Union minister V Narayanasamy said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday cleared the uncertainty over the start of Kudankulam nuclear project declaring that the first unit will be operationalised in a couple of weeks but India and Russia did not sign any agreement for the third and fourth units of the plant.
'Chinese are going bang, bang, bang building 30-35 reactors.' 'We should announce a programme of 50 new reactors and show that we mean business on the ground and not just announcements.'
Two 1000 MW power plants each are coming up at Jagadapur in Maharashtra, two more plants of 700 MW capacity are proposed to be set up in Gujarat.
India will acquire a few more reactors from Russia in the near future and sites to erect these are currently being selected.
A petition has been filed in the Madras High Court against commissioning of the Kudankulam Nulcear Power Plant on the ground that authorities had not complied with all the directions issued by the Supreme Court while giving the green signal to the controversial project.
The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant will attain criticality by mid-night on Saturday, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman S K Sinha announced in Tirunelveli.
An agreement on the setting up of Unit three and four of the Russian-assisted Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadu is likely to be signed in the "near future", India said today, indicating the possibility during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Moscow next week.
'Why should we disclose classified information to satisfy those who doubt our Hydrogen Bomb capability?'
A bomb explosion at the Idinthakarai coastal village in Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu has killed six people, including three children, who were all aged below five. The blast site is close to Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant.
After years of deadlock on liability issue, India and Russia have signed an agreement for building units 3 and 4 of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant project at a cost of Rs 33,000 crore.
Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited on Wednesday dismissed reports about a blast or steam pipe leak at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, saying there was only "an incident of hot water spillage" in which six persons were injured.
In a candid chat with A Ganesh Nadar, S P Udaykuamr's wife Meera speaks about Idinthakarai's struggle, the sacrifices made by her and her two sons and more.
'They are taking the people of the country for granted.'
Though it still has only a single-digit share in total electricity production, India has been looking to tap nuclear power faster.
The nation will have nine nuclear reactors by 2024 and a new nuclear project, the first in northern India, will come up 150 kms away from Delhi in Gorakhpur of Haryana, the government informed the Rajya Sabha.
Union minister Jitendra Singh assured the members of the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that there is better nuclear safety in India as compared to many other countries and there are enough safeguards in the Indian nuclear plants.
About 10 lakh cases filed in connection with violation of lockdown norms to prevent spread of COVID-19, and cases over protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act early last year would be withdrawn, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced in Tenkasi on Friday.
Ignoring the Communist Party of India-Marxist official line, party veteran V S Achuthanandan today set out to Kundankulam to pledge solidarity with anti-nuclear protesters but was stopped by Tamil Nadu Police at the border town of Kaliyikkavila near Thiruvananthapuram.
Anti-nuclear movement leader S P Udayakumar on Tuesday gave up his plan to surrender to the police after making a dramatic appearance to do so and was whisked away by his supporters.
Dravida Munetra Kazhagam treasurer M K Stalin on Monday urged Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to withdraw cases filed against agitators, including fishermen, in Kudankulam in accordance with a Supreme Court ruling.
While nuclear engineers cheer KNPP's first full operation, on nine other sites which house atomic reactors, scientists spend sleepless nights.
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd has postponed the expected date of commissioning of the first unit of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant to next month
In Kudankulam, while addressing the media, India Against Corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal displayed an illustration, which shows the national emblem with Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti instead of the Sarnath lions.
At Idinthakarai -- the epicenter of protests against the nuclear plant -- Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar encounters a hostile crowd that is angry with the heavy police presence outside their village.
The government on Friday said it was open to imposing additional conditions on the Kudankulam nuclear power project, if directed by courts, to protect the marine ecosystem of the region.
With the commissioning of the much-delayed Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project expected by end of December 10, anti-nuclear activists are planning to lay siege to the facility on December 10 to press for scrapping the project.