nuclear-news

Madras High Court highly critical of India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board

Court frowns on ministers over Kudankulam launch date Court says ministers respects only Supreme Court IANS August 16, 2012 Chennai: With the protest against Kudankulam nuclear power plant entering its second year, the Madras High Court hearing two petitions against the project Thursday came down on union ministers, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB).

“Hearing the two petitions, the Madras High Court came down heavily on the union ministers, saying that they respect only the Supreme Court and not the other courts. The court also asked how central ministers can announce KNPP (Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project) commissioning date when a case is being heard,” P. Sundararajan, a lawyer, said.

P Sundararajan is junior to advocate M Radhakrishnan representing G Sundarrajan who has filed two petitions in the court challenging the consent given by the AERB and the TNPCB to the Nuclear Power
Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) that is building the plant at
Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district, around 650km from
here.
According to Sundararajan, the court also wondered why the AERB was in
a hurry to clear fuel loading.
“The AERB gave its nod to NPCIL to load the fuel in the first reactor
last week without ensuring the implementation of safety measures in
the KNPP as recommended by an expert committee set up to review the
safety aspects of Indian nuclear power plants in the wake of nuclear
accident at Fukushima in Japan,” Sundarrajan said about his
petitions…..
The TNPCB, in its consent order, allows the tolerance temperature
limit of trade effluent of the KNPP at 45 degrees Celsius while the
Comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment for the KNPP units 1 and
2 and additional units 3 to 6 has limited the tolerance temperature to
37 degree Celsius, he said.
Interestingly, the central government-appointed expert committee in
its report last December said that the seasonal variation in surface
water temperature of Kudankulam Marine Environment ranged from 23
degrees Celsius during monsoon and winter to 29 degrees Celsius during
summer, with an annual average of 26.6 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, the protest against the two 1,000-MW atomic power plant
entered its second year Thursday with anti-nuclear activists stating
that their fight was now two pronged – on the streets and within the
portals of the Madras High Court.
“Our fight is on two flanks – civil/democratic and legal. We have been
protesting against the project in a non-violent manner for the past
one year. Now public interest petitions (PIL) have been filed in the
Madras High Court. The court has reserved its decision on one, and two
more cases have been filed,” said M Pushparayan, a leader of People’s
Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMAN), said.
He said fishermen in Tirunelveli, Tuticorin and Kanyakumari districts
did not go into the sea Thursday to express solidarity with PMANE and
a huge crowd had gathered in Idinthakarai to attend an anti-nuclear
power conference.
http://gulfnews.com/news/world/india/court-frowns-on-ministers-over-kudankulam-launch-date-1.1062802

August 17, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | India, Legal