The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday set up a four-member expert panel, which includes former atomic energy commission chief M R Srinivasan, to submit a report on the fears and concerns of local people over the Koodankulam nuclear power project.
Construction work at the controversial Koodankulam nuclear power plant has been stopped but essential maintenance activities are underway, Minister of State in the Prime Ministers Office V Narayanasamy said on Thursday.
In an exclusive conversation with rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar, KNPP director K Balajee says his team worked 15 hours a day to get the plant ready, and now they are sitting idle thanks to the escalating protests.
The anti-Koodankulam nuclear power plant activists on Wednesday demanded that Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam withdraw support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government and stand by their cause,as they continued their stir demanding scrapping of the project.
Amid public resistance to nuclear power projects at Jaitapur and Koodankulam, the Department of Atomic Energy has said the work on both plants will be completed but their could be delay.
Protesters on Thursday formally ended their 12-day fast against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project, a day after the Tamil Nadu government promised to pass a resolution at the Cabinet for halting the project.
The plant was earlier scheduled for commercial operations in December but it was deferred to March next due to the stir by locals and resultant stand-off between them and government. The commercial operation of the second unit to produce another 1000 mw is now expected by February 2013, the NPCIL said.
The Centre on Saturday said it is confident of commissioning the first unit of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project to generate 1,000 MW of power in two months as 99 per cent of its works are over.
The week-long protest against Koodankulam nuclear power plant was suspended for two days on Sunday in view of the civic polls in Tamil Nadu even as the stir has left over 100 staff members stranded inside the main project complex.
Activists strongly opposed to the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project have now turned to God. In their letter, they have urged the Almighty to save them from a 'nuclear disaster'.
India has said the stalled agreement for four more Russian nuclear reactors in Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu was not a setback.
A tense situation prevailed as over 1,000 anti nuclear protesters made a vain bid to lay a siege to the controversial Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, protesting against the proposed loading of fuel.
In the letter, they have demanded the halting of the construction of the plant claiming that it violated the International Atomic Energy Agency safety guidelines as 'the nuclear plant is in a tsunami and earthquake prone region, which has also experienced small volcanic eruptions and is affected by water shortages".
The People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy, leading the protest against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant, on Saturday threatened to sue the Prime Minister's Office for linking the stir to foreign funding.
The Centre's announcement of setting up of an expert group to allay fears over Koodankulam nuclear plant has not been received favourably by anti-nuclear activists who have resumed their protests against the project.
A day after the Tamil Nadu government gave its go ahead to the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant, work at the Indo-Russian project started in full swing with officials expressing hope that the first unit would be commissioned "as soon as possible."
With the standoff over the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant issue continuing, top atomic scientists will meet Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday to discuss ways and means to allay the fears of the locals who are insisting on scrapping the project.
It has been three weeks since villagers in Tamil Nadu's Idinthakarai have been on relay fast protesting the construction of the Koodankulam nuclear plant. A Ganesh Nadar reports from ground zero
The committees set up by the Centre and Tamil Nadu government to resolve the standoff over the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant met in Tirunelveli on Tuesday for the first time when representatives of the protesters presented a charter of demands including a paper on plant's status.
The Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project has been jinxed ever since it was thought of. It was first talked about in 1988 when the Soviet Union agreed to build a plant in India and also supply it fuel. The Soviet Union broke up soon after. Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar spoke with Swapnesh Kumar Malhotra.
The Tamil Nadu police is on the lookout for three persons who were running a competitive examination centre in Karivalamvanthanallur, a mid-size town near Sankarankoil, Tirunelveli district, from where the cops have seized pro-Maoist literature, including CDs. The absconding management of the centre, locally known as the 'IAS academy' also doubled as a recruitment agents.
Three important developments in the nuclear sector have put the department of atomic energy and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India on the back foot, says Praful Bidwai
Demanding that the Centre immediately scrap the Kudankulam Nuclear power project, social activist Swami Agnivesh on Thursday sought a high-level enquiry and public hearing to 'expose' corruption in the energy sector.
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
Uncritical acceptance of any major project is undesirable. So also is unbending opposition to it. Constructive criticism of the project could bring about greater safety in design, construction and operation or even lead to abandonment of the project. The scientific and engineering community in the country should play an active role in such criticism instead of remaining mute spectators, leaving the ground to the lay public, says L V Krishnan.
The government should step in to prevent major infrastructure projects, including nuclear power reactors, from becoming a casualty of non-government protests.
'...If the power situation does not improve in Tamil Nadu. The Congress will not allow the plant to start.' As the Supreme Court clears the decks for commissioning the controversial Koodankulam nuclear plant, A Ganesh Nadar checks the mood in the villages, the epi-centre of the protests.
When dealing with risky technology, it is most important to take people into confidence and tell them what the real risks are, says environment justice activist Nityanand Jayaraman.
Around 250 people were on Sunday arrested in Tuticorin after being stopped from heading towards anti-nuclear agitators here who, in a fresh form of protest against loading of fuel in Koodankulam plant, buried themselves upto waist in beach sand.
The Madurai regional passport officer has claimed that anti-nuclear power plant activist S P Udayakumar may flee the country as there are 98 criminal cases against him. A Ganesh Nadar reports
Anti-nuclear activist S P Udayakumar, spearheading the stir against Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant on Tuesday sent a legal notice to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his comments on the funding of the protests against the project.
Talks to break the logjam over the controversial Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project made no headway on Friday with protestors terming as "failure" the discussions with the Central government's expert committee on the issue.
Seeking to end the impasse over the Kudankulam nuclear plant issue, the Jayalalilthaa government in Tamil Nadu on Monday gave the go ahead to the controversial project and announced a Rs 500 crore special development package for the area where it is located.
What is in store for the Koodankulam nuclear power plants, asks S P Udayakumar.
Instead of trying to bulldoze through the stalled project, the establishment's energies could be more efficiently deployed in targeting other sectoral problems, says Devangshu Datta
The Union Home Ministry has referred two cases of Tamil Nadu-based Non-Governmental organisations for investigations for FCRA violations. The two NGO's have been organising demonstrations against setting up the Koodankulam nuclear power plant in the state.
'We have launched a massive outreach programme, not only at Koodankulam but at all operating projects and those proposed. You will see the change, though this needs time and some healing,' says Kailash Chandra Purohit, the new chairman and managing director of Nuclear Power Corporation
Officials of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited are inspecting the first unit of Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tirunelveli district after removing dummy fuel from the reactor prior to getting clearance from the Atomic Energy Regulatory board to upload the real fuel.
In Delhi this December, we understood how many others from Kashmir to Koodankulam have long felt, says Shivam Vij
The Hindutva social media continues to present the DMK especially as anti-god, anti-Hindu and anti-Brahmin. The strategy did not work in the past, it has not worked in the present, and would not work in the future, as a massive vote-getter, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
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