From the nature of the information sought and the questions asked by the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) at its meetings with the Central experts' group in Tirunelveli last year, it appears there is some hidden agenda, a top-ranking member of the group alleged. The PMANE members kept asking for copies of documents of the India-Russian Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) of November 20, 1988, on the setting up of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP); the detailed project report submitted to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests; a copy of the Inter-Governmental Agreement on the liability issue that was signed secretly by the governments of Russia and India in 2008; the KKNPP's impact on bilateral relations with Sri Lanka, Maldives, China and Pakistan; and so on.
In a letter submitted to the experts' group on November 8, 2011, the PMANE sought copies of the Environmental Impact Assessment [EIA], Site Evaluation Study, Safety Analysis Report, VVER (Russian reactors built at Kudankulam) performance report and all other relevant documents for reactors 1 and 2 in order to prepare ourselves and initiate a meaningful dialogue with the Central and State teams.
The PMANE wanted the Central and State teams to probe and prepare position papers on the KKNPP's Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) violations, construction quality and reliability, contractor irregularities and corruption charges, dummy fuel and its disposal, fuel procurement for the KKNPP and its mode of transportation, Pechiparai dam and Tamiraparani river water utilisation (which will not be used at all), nuclear waste disposal and management, reprocessing plans and plant at the KKNPP site, radiation illnesses (including all types of cancers), seismology, conservation issues (Gulf of Mannar biosphere and the Western Ghats), and so on. It also wanted position papers on Russian and Indian liability issues, project cost and Russian debt analysis; fuel and waste transportation; decommissioning plans, technology and cost; International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards arrangements; Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) issues; and setting up possible weapons-related facility at the KKNPP.
The experts' group's 77-page report, dated January 31, 2012, said, Attempts made by the convener and other members of the experts' group to give technical explanations to some of the issues raised (such as the EIA report, the KKNPP and general nuclear safety, waste management, environmental effects of nuclear power, and so on) were resisted on the grounds that the PMANE representatives were not technical people and that the experts' group should address the [local] people directly or [talk] to the PMANE's expert group'.
T.S. SubramanianCOMMents
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