nuclear-news

Thousands of police surround India’s anti nuclear protestors

Indian Police Arrest 10 at Nuclear Power Plant Protest IDINTHAKARAI, Tamil Nadu, India, March 19, 2012 (ENS) – Thousands of police today surrounded thousands of anti-nuclear protestors demonstrating against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Idinthakarai.

Ten people have been arrested, including three protest leaders, for holding demonstrations without permission and preventing
KNPP officials from discharging their duty.
“The bells are ringing in Idinthikarai, thousands of people are
pouring into the village from all over the nearby districts, to lay
siege to the plant,” one of the protest leaders said in an email alert
today. People from Idindhakarai village have blocked the entrance to
the plant, demanding the release of those arrested.

All roads to Idinthakarai are blocked by the police, but more
protesters are trying to get to the village by boat.

Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant is a Russian-built nuclear power
station situated at the very southern tip of India in the state of
Tamil Nadu. The two pressurized water reactors being constructed by
the state-owned Atomstroy Export are 98 percent complete.

While plant construction is nearly complete, commissioning was put on
hold due to anti-nuclear protests by local residents and the nonprofit
group People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy.

But today, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa gave the green
light to move forward with commissioning the Kudankulam nuclear power
plant, a day after a local election was held in the district where the
plant is located.

Russia said that it would send its scientists to the site Tuesday to
begin the commissioning work.

To satisfy the demonstrators, the government announced a Rs 500-crore
special development package for the area to construct houses, build
cold storage facilities for fishermen and improve local roads.

The protests began when the plant was first conceived in the
mid-1980s. They intensified in September 2011 and continued through
the fall and winter. Thousands of protesters and villagers living near
the nuclear plant have blocked highways and staged hunger strikes,
preventing further construction work, and demanding closure of the
nuclear plant. The protests intensified again today as the news spread
that the Tamil Nadu government will commission the Kudankulam facility
immediately.

“The nuclear plant is unsafe,” said S.P. Udayakumar, a teacher, writer
and leader of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy and
convenor of the Green Party of India. Today, he announced a hunger
strike of indefinite length in protest against commissioning the power
plant.

“The safety analysis report and the site evaluation study have not
been made public. No public hearing was held. It’s an authoritarian
project that has been imposed on the people,” said Udayakumar.

The demonstrators have been carrying out hunger strikes, rallies,
public meetings, seminars and conferences, shaving their heads,
cooking on the street and burning the models of the nuclear plants.

“This is a classic David-Goliath fight between the ordinary citizens
of India and the Indian government supported by the multinational
companies, imperial powers and the global nuclear mafia,” Udayakumar
told “The Guardian” newspaper earlier this month.

“They promise nuclear power, development, atom bombs, security and
superpower status. We demand risk-free electricity, disease-free life,
unpolluted natural resources, sustainable development and a harmless
future,” he said….. The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant protesters
say, “More than one million people live within the 30 km radius of the
KKNPP, which far exceeds the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board
stipulations. It is quite impossible to evacuate this many people
quickly and efficiently in case of a nuclear disaster at Kudankulam .”

Some demonstrators say that the government of India is pursuing “an
anti-Tamil policy” by siting the nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu,
and at the same time they point to protesters who have joined them
from across India, saying this is “an all-India” issue.

A public interest lawsuit has been filed against the government’s
civil nuclear program at the apex Supreme Court. The lawsuit asks for
the “staying of all proposed nuclear power plants till satisfactory
safety measures and cost-benefit analyses are completed by independent
agencies.”
…. http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2012/2012-03-19-02.html

March 20, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | civil liberties, India