Work halts at Kudankulam

Work at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) in Tamil Nadu has “halted” because the plant personnel are “unable to go inside” and this situation has arisen “when we need several thousands of people to work inside during the last phase of work” of commissioning of the first reactor there, said Srikumar Banerjee, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission.

“We are unable to even enter the place. This is the situation today,” he said in a recent interview with The Hindu in his Mumbai office.

The KKNPP comprises two Russian VVER-1000 reactors, each with a capacity of 1,000 MWe. The first reactor was on course for commissioning in November/December and the second was to be started up in June 2012.

(Several hundreds of people led by the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) and belonging to the coastal villages around the KKNPP are on a relay fast at Idinthakarai village from September 11, demanding the project's closure. The KKNPP engineers and other staff are unable to enter the plant from October 13 because of the restrictions placed on them and threats from the villagers. About 3,000 contract-labourers from Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa have left for their home-States after they received threats).

‘Not advisable’
On the core demand of the PMANE leaders that work at the KKNPP should halt first before the 15-member experts' group announced by the Centre could talk to the villagers and allay their fears about the safety of the Kudankulam reactors, Dr. Banerjee said, “Physically, work has been halted. But it is not advisable to do that.” If the agitators meant that “not a single person should enter the Kudankulam plant” when they demanded that work on the project should halt, “we are allowing a major asset of the country to degrade and that is not something acceptable,” he said.

He said the first unit had high temperature systems, flowing coolant and high voltage systems. Dr. Banerjee said: “So it is not a matter of switching off the whole system and bringing it to a standstill. Whenever you have a coolant in a circuit and you make it stagnant, then there is the possibility of some undue corrosion effect on some of the components. Obviously, this is not normally done. You always run the coolant and this process requires the attention of the technicians as well as the supporting people.”

Clearance awaited
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited was waiting for clearance to load the fuel into the reactor and there were expectations that the reactor might reach criticality in October. “So essentially this has been halted…There is no big dispute on this…But you must run the essential facilities for the safety and long-term service of the equipment,” the AEC Chairman said.

India was an impoverished country in terms of power supply. Tamil Nadu even today had a serious power shortage, he said.

“Tamil Nadu is also a State which is aspiring for major industrial growth. This industrial growth will happen only when you have power,” he added. Two thousand MWe was ready for delivery from the two Kudankulam units with Tamil Nadu getting 925 MWe as its share but this agitation was not allowing this to happen.

“Basically, this is a step towards decelerating the economic growth process, the growth of livelihood of people or their quality of life,” said Dr. Banerjee, who is also Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy.

Stir unexpected
The agitation at Idinthakarai was “a little unexpected” because “a cordial relationship existed all along” between the KKNPP employees and the villagers around, he said.

The KKNPP engineers regularly took part in the education and social programmes of the villages around.

“We were actually looking forward to enriching our relationship with the people around” because nuclear power reactors nowadays had a life-span of 40 years to 60 years. “So it is a big surprise for me” that the agitation had broken out, he said.

APJ Abdul Kalam's plan for Kudankulam includes highway, 10k jobs, world-class hospital

NEW DELHI/CHENNAI: Former President APJ Abdul Kalam has come out with a 10-point plan for the development of the area around the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project, even while reiterating his satisfaction over the safety net in place at the site to prevent a Fukushima-type tragedy.

The confidence-building measure was aimed at persuading anti-nuclear energy campaigners to give up their opposition to the plant. The action plan includes creation of 10,000 jobs, construction of a fourlane highway connecting Kudankulam with other major towns of Tamil Nadu and a world-class hospital.

The release of the confidence-building road-map coincided with the first meeting of the 15-member expert group set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last month to allay fears among the local population.

Kalam, who arrived at Kudankulam on Saturday night as part of the exercise to examine the safety measures incorporated by the project scientists and engineers and convince protestors to allow resumption of work at the KNPP site, again sought to underwrite the safety net.

He asked the people not to have "even a nano-sized doubt" on the protective ring, arguing that it met all the four safety aspects - nuclear criticality, radiation, thermal hydraulic and structural integrity safety. He has suggested construction of a four-lane highway connecting Kudankulam and villages 30 km around it with Madurai, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari, a world-class hospital with over 500-beds, mobile medical facilities to locals and creation of 10,000 jobs to people living within a radius of 60 km and bank loans to youth with up to 25% subsidy.

In his study report submitted to the state government, Kalam also suggested creating infrastructure facilities like construction of green houses, multi-storeyed housing complex and playgrounds. He said fishermen in the area should be provided with motorboats, small jetties and cold-storage facilities.

Kalam, who prepared the report along with his advisor V Ponraj, said efforts should be made to provide locals one million litre of drinking water through desalination process and water should be brought from Pechiparai reservoir in Kanyakumari district for agriculture and drinking water needs.

The report also suggested setting up of five CBSE and state government syllabus schools with hostel facilities, connecting all villages through broadband Internet, setting up of Disaster Protection and Management Centre and guiding selected youth to get permanent employment.

At the same time, efforts should be made to remove people's fears by providing relevant information, and with their full co-operation the plant should start functioning as scheduled to enable Tamil Nadu to get 1000 MW power.


Kalam's report noted that government had formulated very stringent regulations on setting up nuclear reactors and Kudankulam can withstand even double onslaught of tsunami and earthquake together. The site for setting up the reactor was selected after taking into account enough safety aspects and as per Atomic Energy Regulatory Board Code of Practice on Safety in Nuclear Power Plants.

Hence, there was "no need for any doubts on the safety aspects" and Environmental Impact Assessment, it said. Kalam said 1.5 km radius around the plant was an exclusive sterilised zone and the site came within the project and there was no question of any displacement of habitants.

Arguing that Tamil Nadu was free from seismic disturbances during the last 1000 years, he said the towers of Meenakshi Temple at Madurai and Big Temple at Thanjavur had not been affected by any earthquake. Citing the historic Grand Anicut built by Chola emperor Karikalan in the first century AD, Kalam said if the king had thought that the dam would burst and destroy humanity, the dam would not have come up and so the present apprehensions on KNPP were unnecessary and unwarranted.

Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant

Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power station currently under construction in Koodankulam in the Tirunelveli district of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Cost estimation of this project was US$3 billion.

The Inter-Governmental Agreement on the project was signed on November 20, 1988 by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. The project was in limbo for 10 years. There has been considerable struggle to stop this project due to nuclear pollution reasons[citation needed]. While United States complained about the agreement as it does not meet with the terms of the Nuclear Supplies Group (NSG), Russia contends that the Koodankulam deal was originally signed in 1988 and is therefore not subject to the 1992 NSG guidelines.[1]

There are negotiations to see if a naval base is to be added here for both safeguarding the project and as a presence in the southern tip of the country.[2] A mini port became operational in Koodankulam on January 14, 2004.[3] The port has been established to receive barges carrying overdimensional equipments for light water reactors from ships anchored at a distance of 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi). This removes the necessity of land transportation that increases the possibility of damage. The Sethusamudram project will enhance the military and provide Nuclear Submarine base in the canal, with the nuclear fuel supplied by the Koodankulam Nuclear Project.

In 2008, an agreement on building additional reactors at the atomic station was initialized.[4]

[edit] Technical description
Two 1 GW units of the VVER-1000 model are being constructed by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited. When the two are completed, it will become the largest nuclear power generation complex in India producing a cumulative of 2 GW of electric power. Both units are Water Cooled Water Moderated Power Reactors.[5] The first unit is estimated to go into operation in December 2009, while the second one is set for March 2010.[6][7] Four more reactors are set to be added to this plant.[8] This will add another 2.5 GW output from the project. When completed, this will provide about 40% of the nuclear power in India

Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant

Data
Country India
Owner Nuclear Power Corporation of India LTD.
Built 1998
Reactors
Reactors under construction 2 (2000 MW)
Power

Koodankulam Issues

CHENNAI: If the last two months have been punctuated by intense protests against the Kudankulam nuclear power project, the pro-plant camp too has held occasional strikes and fasts in the southern and western districts.

But Chennai, which remained largely silent, is now being subjected to a low-key campaign in favour of the project. The campaign, however, islargely aimed at colleges and state-run institutions.

The most recent of them was an event held at Anna University on Saturday, inviting the students to debate on the issue of Kudankulam. "Youngsters need to be aware of the processes and ramifications of nuclear energy and whether it is really as vulnerable as many make it out to be," said P K N Panicker, president of Chemical Industries Association, which had organised the debate.

The association has been actively campaigning in favour of the project for the past two months and also writing letters to the chief minister, J Jayalalithaa, urging her to facilitate early commissioning of the plant.

"We are also in the process of setting up similar discussions and debates in seven other colleges in the city," Panicker said. Some of these events are being chaired by members of the central expert committee as well as representatives of the nuclear fraternity.

"These debates go on to show how much the public needs to know about this issue," said W S Aruldoss Kanthiah, a member of the central expert committee and the Department of Atomic Energy, who was acting judge at one such event. "We have also approached the state government for permission to address the state expert committee as well other state-run platforms."

Ironically, the nuclear scientists community, who are generally considered to be close-mouthed, are now spotted urging the students and college heads to approach them for guided tours of the facilities at Kalpakkam atomic power station.

While Chennai is latest target of a subtle and urbane campaign in favour of the plant, other districts of Tamil Nadu have been bristling with strikes and fasts. In November, various interested groups organised a human chain in Madurai, urging the government to open the plant.

On December 20, 2011, over 400 smallscale industries in Erode district observed a one-day strike urging the government to commission the plant. Similarly, large industries too went on a strike in Coimbatore while fasts were observed in Tirunelveli by several groups including Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC).