nuclear-news

India’s nuclear bodies trample on civil liberties and natural justice

the DAE and NPCIL habitually behave as if they were a law unto themselves. …  pre-emptive land acquisition, like imposition of unsafe projects on an unwilling people, violates natural justice. That’s nuclear power for you.

Nuclear power and natural justice, By Praful Bidwai Apr 04 2012MyDigitalFC.com “…. India’s department of atomic energy (DAE), and its subsidiary, Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL), are blithely proceeding with a massive expansion of nuclear power generation even as they seek special exemptions under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

They have proposed two amendments to the Act, which exempt sensitive information on radiation safety and commercially-sensitive information on technology-holders, and to
insulate the RTI Act from bodies to be created under the Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority Bill to oversee nuclear facilities established for strategic and national defence purposes. Mercifully, central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has forcefully rejected these proposals.

Even more pernicious are the nuclear establishment’s moves to bypass or violate safety procedures, including some laid down by the regulator, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB). NPCIL is rushing into commissioning the first reactor at Koodankulam, which was lying idle for more than four months. Prior to preparing it for fuel loading, the reactor should be put through another “hot run”, similar to that in August-September, says former AERB chairman A Gopalakrishnan.

In this operation, the core is loaded with dummy fuel
and hot water is circulated through it at the same temperature as its
operating level to check the integrity of its vessels, piping and
valves, among others.

The AERB also mandates that an emergency evacuation drill be conducted
in the emergency planning zone (EPZ) covering a radius of 16 km from
the plant, before the reactor is loaded with nuclear fuel. This is
also demanded by those who sustained a six-month-long agitation
against the plant before Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa
cracked down on them, arresting more than 180, slapping sedition
charges against activists, and harassing people for symbolic protests
such as shutting down their grocery shops. There are no indications
whatever that NPCIL will carry out such a drill, which would require
the local people’s cooperation.
Meanwhile, key docum­ents, including guidelines on “Population
Distribution and Analysis in Relation to Siting of Nuclear Power
Pl­ants” codenamed SG/S-9, ha­ve gone missing from the AERB’s website
(http://­www.­aerb.gov.in, accessed on April 2). There is compelling
evidence that the Koodankulam plant doesn’t meet the AERB’s earlier
stipulation that there must no population at all within a 1.5 km
radius, and only a sparse population within a 1.5-5 km radius. Parts
of Idinthakarai village, including a recently-built ts­unami relief
colony, with a population of several thousands, are less than 1.5 km
away. This is visible to the naked eye. And, at least 40,000 people
live within a 5-km radius. As for the EPZ, no fewer than 100,000 live
there.

If and how NPCIL could reconcile this reality with AERB guidelines, and whet-
her the AERB grants it permission to proceed with the plant’s
commissioning by be­nding the rules, remains unclear. What’s
abundantly clear is that an independent agency must be asked to survey
the actual population distribution and ensure that the board complies
with its own rules before permitting fuel loading. If this requires
judicial intervention, then so be it.

However, the DAE and NPCIL habitually behave as if they were a law unto themselves. The DAE routinely grants “in-principle” approval to nuclear projects even before the site selection process is completed and the statutory environment clearance (EC) is granted by the ministry of environment and forests. NP­CIL then acquires land under
the draconian Land Acquisition Act of 1894 without an EC. This has
happened repeatedly. For instance, land was acquired for the Jaitapur
plant in Maharashtra four years before it was granted an EC in a
dubious manner.

NPCIL is doing the same thing with the 10,000 mw multi-reactor plant
proposed at Kovvada in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, which is
liable to affect 66 villages, 74,000 people and over 26,000 acres of
agricultural land. As many as 3,500 people live within 1.5 km of the
site. And another 30,000 people live in a 1.5-to-5 km radius called
sterilised zone. But, pre-emptive land acquisition, like imposition of
unsafe projects on an unwilling people, violates natural justice.
That’s nuclear power for you.
http://www.mydigitalfc.com/op-ed/nuclear-power-and-natural-justice-784

April 5, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | civil liberties, India