Jaitapur may store spent nuclear fuel: Activists

MUMBAI - Two days after the centre cleared the 9,900 MW Jaitapur nuclear power project (JNPP), activists Tuesday said the plant was dangerous as it may store spent fuel from other nuclear plants in the country.

Vowing to intensify agitation against JNPP, coming up in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra, activists of the Konkan Bachao Samiti (KBS) and other organisations claimed that the power generation capacity of the plant is ten times that of Chernobyl.

“We all know what happened in Chernobyl and how Ukraine, Belarus and Russia were hit. The spent fuel, if stored here, would be several hundred times more dangerous than Chernobyl,” secretary of the state unit of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) Vivek Monteiro said.

Alleging that a proper “scientific scrutiny” of JNPP has not been carried out and several facts have been hidden, Monteiro pointed out that more than energy requirements, the project was about foreign policy and strategic needs.

Monteiro pointed out that neither the Nuclear Power Corporation of India or French company Areva, which will be constructing the project, could deny “radioactivity issues” involved.

“Our concern is about the solid waste and spent fuel. Jairam Ramesh only spoke of liquid waste disposal, but nothing on the solid waste. If this group of plants produces 30 tonnes of waste in a year, it is several hundred times Hiroshima. Chernobyl, a 1000 MW plant, when it leaked, was 400 times Hiroshima. JNPP, just in the first phase, will be nearly 3,000 MW,” he said.

He questioned the issuance of a conditional environmental clearance to the project by the environment ministry without reviewing radioactive risks.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Union Minister for Environment & Forests Jairam Ramesh Sunday announced the project, which the activists have been opposing for long.

Several political parties, unions and NGOs have joined hands to challenge the project under the banner of KBS and Janhit Seva Saimti.

“It is against the wishes of the local gram sabhas. All NGOs and local political parties are together to fight it,” said KBS leader Vaishali Patil.

Patil said that activists and people from the Konkan region would assemble at the historic Azad Maidan here Thursday and would conduct a scientific session on JNPP at the Tata Institute of Social Science the next day.

Republican Party of India leader and former MP Ramdas Athawale said his party and Republican Left Democratic Front too would oppose the project.