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