nuclear-news

Determined opposition to AREVA’s planned nuclear plant in India

“Say No To Nuclear Power. We Don’t Want To Get Sick,”…”Areva Go Back,”

Protests mount against Indian nuclear plant Inquirer.net, By Phil Hazlewood   04/24/2011 SAKHRI NATE – In the busy Indian fishing village of Sakhri Nate, it’s obvious what the locals think of the plan to build the world’s biggest nuclear power plant just across the creek.

“Say No To Nuclear Power. We Don’t Want To Get Sick,” reads one slogan in Hindi on the side of a tarpaulin-covered shack selling sweet tea and sugary snacks.

Chalked on a wall around the corner is a message for the French company that has signed a $9.3-billion deal to supply the plant’s first state-of-the-art pressurized water reactors.

“Areva Go Back,” it says simply in English.

Opposition to the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project runs deep in this part of the Konkan region of western India, whose people have earned a living from fishing and farming for generations……resistance has hardened since the Japanese earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima plant, forcing a rethink on nuclear safety around the world and calls in India for a halt to atomic expansion.

Pravin Gaonkar, a fisherman and mango farmer spearheading the anti-nuclear campaign, said the Japanese nuclear crisis was all the more relevant, as the Konkan coast is prone to regular seismic activity.

“Before the incident in Japan we were told how technologically advanced it was, how it was an earthquake-prone zone and yet they had nuclear plants. What’s happened has completely changed the scenario,” the 57-year-old added…..http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20110424-332693/Protests-mount-against-Indian-nuclear-plant

April 24, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | India, opposition to nuclear