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Millions of fishermen and farmers would be affected by India’s nuclear power plans

Both areas support millions of subsistence fishing and farming families who, faced with the forced acquisition of their land and loss of livelihoods, pose a formidable opposition to a government sensitive to the loss of a core constituency.

Dr (Anil) Kakodkar projected that India would be generating 650,000MW of nuclear power by 2050. That’s 650 1000MW nuclear reactors,” he says. “You would almost need to evict the entire fishermen population of India.”……..

Heat rises beyond the smog in India  AMANDA HODGE, SOUTH ASIA CORRESPONDENT : The Australian November 26, 2011 “….. In India, where its nuclear capability has traditionally stirred great national pride, Fukushima gave meaning and pictures to environmentalists’ warnings. “People are realising that if something like this can happen in Japan, where everything runs on time, it can definitely happen here,” Greenpeace India nuclear spokeswoman Karuna Raina says.

India’s anti-nuclear fervour is centred on two huge atomic energy projects: one built and ready to go in Koodankulam in southern Tamil Nadu, the other mooted for Jaitapur on the fertile coast of Maharashtra.

Both areas support millions of subsistence fishing and farming families who, faced with the forced acquisition of their land and loss of livelihoods, pose a formidable opposition to a government sensitive to the loss of a core constituency.

The Geological Survey of India originally assessed the entire coastal Maharashtra region, including Jaitapur, as a Zone 4 earthquake zone – too high for a nuclear reactor. But Raina says when the state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India’s environmental assessment was released the Jaitapur region had been “conveniently downgraded” to a Zone 3.

It is such lack of transparency that has alienated even nuclear advocates in India. Adinarayan Gopalakrishnan, the former chairman of India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, says the government is yet to prove it has addressed the 135 “major safety deficiencies” he identified in 1996…..

People are deeply concerned because they haven’t been told how safety will be assured. What started off as localised protests is now knitting together into an all-India anti-nuclear movement.

he says India’s nuclear ambitions are “highly unrealistic”, pointing to the 2008 projections of the then Atomic Energy Commission chairman that nuclear could even be as high as half of all power by 2050. “Dr (Anil) Kakodkar projected that India would be generating 650,000MW of nuclear power by 2050. That’s 650 1000MW nuclear reactors,” he says. “You would almost need to evict the entire fishermen population of India.”……..

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/heat-rises-beyond-the-smog/story-e6frg6z6-1226206437691

November 28, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | India, politics