Nuclear energy vs Kudankulam is Right vs Kudankulam is wrong

Nuclear energy has been one of the most controversial topics since its first research testing in the early 20th century. This awesome power has been used for life-saving procedures and horrific destruction of human life alike. Nuclear energy is the energy that binds subatomic particles together against magnetic forces. When unleashed, nuclear energy presents one of the strongest energy forms man has ever known.

History
The first recorded nuclear energy event was in 1896 by French physicist Henri Becquerel. He observed that photographic plates stored near a sample of uranium turned dark like X-ray film despite being in darkness. This event ultimately led to the discovery of nuclear forces within atoms and their eventual harnessing within atomic bombs and nuclear energy reactors.

Types
Nuclear energy is defined by how it is propagated. Namely, there are three production methods for nuclear energy: radioactive decay, fusion and fission. All three of these nuclear energy-producing processes release particles, gamma rays, neutrinos or all three. Radioactive decay occurs naturally by way of heavy, unstable atoms breaking down over time. Fission and fusion produce nuclear energy by either splitting or fusing atoms, respectively.

Time Frame
Nuclear energy itself is everlasting and does disappear unless it is converted into another energy form. The time frame that is most relevant in regard to nuclear energy is that of its effects on physical and biological matter. Nuclear energy radiation has profound and lasting effects on biological life and ecological systems within areas of effect. Nuclear energy exposure leads to many pathologies in humans and other animals when exposure is above relatively small doses, including radiation poisoning, cancer and birth defects.

Benefits
Though quite literally the tool by which one of the greatest atrocities perpetrated by man has been accomplished, the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, nuclear energy has also been of significant help to humanity. Nuclear energy aids in many medical procedures, such as nuclear MRI technology. Furthermore, the nuclear energy produced in nuclear power plants provides power for countless people in many countries, while reducing the need of ozone-depleting fossil fuels.

Considerations
Nuclear energy has been a defining tool for human beings not just in medicine, warfare or scientific aid. Nuclear energy presents a tool in which the entirety of the human race can be extinguished over the course of one afternoon. All the bombs dropped in the Second World War equaled some 2 megatons. Today thermonuclear weapons have the destructive force of several tons of megatons. All the destructive force of the second world war several times over focused on one spot. Though this point has not come yet it is there looming. Nuclear energy is a tool that requires a mature society to wield and properly use.

5 reasons why there is something wrong with the protests in Kudankulam

Ever since a guy named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi walked on Indian soil, protesting has been the way of life here. While Gandhi protested against the British, we protest against everything. To give you an example, when the Mumbai police recently cracked down on auto guys with tampered meters, THERE WAS A PROTEST AND A STRIKE!

I don’t think there can be a more ridiculous protest than that. Or at least I thought, till the Kudankulam protest came along.

Honestly, I tried really hard to contemplate the reasons for this protest. But the more I think about it, more I feel there is something majorly wrong.

For starters

5. WHY PROTEST AGAINST A POWER PLANT, WHEN TAMIL NADU IS A WOEFULLY POWER DEFICIENT STATE.

Tamil Nadu, as a state, has never been flush with electricity. During my engineering days, my University was subjected to a daily power-cut of two-three hours. That too, bang in the middle of the blazing afternoon. I used to wonder sometimes, whether this was a cunning plan by the Electricity board to ensure students like me, instead of dozing off in our rooms, attended afternoon classes (The classrooms had generator back-up).

Well, the reason was far simpler than that. The power situation, even back then, was dire. This was in 2006.

Which was when, Tamil Nadu decided to go for big ticket industrialization.

While pitching the whole, ‘Tamil Nadu is an industrial destination’, to the rich people, TN state planners overlooked a very tiny fact of life. That industries need something called, ‘Electricity’.

Which explains why, even though new industries were being added at the pace of a Chris Gayle inning, augmenting the state’s creaking electricity generating capacity was totally forgotten. I say creaking, because bulk of Tamil Nadu’s power, needed for the new and the existing industries, still came from its three oldest plants, the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC), Tuticorin Power Plant and the nuclear power station at Kalpakkam.

The youngest power plant amongst these, The Madras Atomic power station, was established in 1985.

In other words, these three are

The AK Hangals of Power Generation

Now, these new TN industries were not your small cute cottage ones, which had miniscule power requirements. They were your big badass ones, like automobiles, electronics, textiles etc etc, the Hummers of the power consumption world. The ones that consumed 100′s of MWs, just to remain idle.

The inevitable had to happen.

In 2011, when these new industries got ready to roll, TN’s total power requirement jumped to 12,000 MW. As the rulers, had forgotten to add to the state’s existing electricity generation capacity, the total power output, stood at 9000 MW’s.

Power Generation in T.N  -  Power Requiement in T.N = - 3000 MW.

You know the state is in trouble, when there is a minus before that figure. Because, it means,

TAMIL NADU HAS A POWER DEFICIT OF 3000 MW. There is no power left in Tamil Nadu.

You can find details of the apocalyptic power situation in Tamil Nadu, here.

Now, to account for that huge deficit in power and balancing the requirements of the industry with that of the aam junta, the electricity guys started something, called the ‘load-shedding activity’.

Which meant statewide power cuts for 3-8 hours. Everyday, including bank holidays.

Now you know, why your granny can’t watch her favorite afternoon serial. And you have to suffer horrible power cut jokes on your FB/Twitter timeline.

Like this

Translates to, 'When will I get the electricity'

Or this one

or this one

To sum it up, Tamil Nadu today, does not have power and is heading for a complete catastrophe. And the only thing that can save it, is a superhero, whose superpower is to generate unlimited electricity.

No, Not this guy

That too immediately.

Enter Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant.

If you did not know, Kudankulam was built with Russian help. And, Russia isn’t exactly known for its subtlety.

For the Russians, this is 'A Small Room'

So, in true, big badass Russian style, they helped us build a reactor complex, which has four reactors. And when commissioned will generate a total of 10,000 MegaWatts of Power.

And of the four, Two are ready.

These two reactors, if started, will instantaneously transform Tamil Nadu, from a beggar to a millionaire as far as power is concerned. For the common man, this will mean no more load shedding, no more afternoon TV missings. It will enable the students to rediscover the lost tradition of the afternoon nap. The industry will begin function at peak capacity, finally resulting in the progress and prosperity of Tamil Nadu.

And of course, It will once and for all solve the power crisis in Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu will never have power cuts ever again.

So, Why protest against something that is going to solve the states’ most critical problem?

More importantly, Why protest now? When

4. THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE KUDANKULAM POWER PLANT STARTED IN, 1988.

This is the Kudankulam power plant

One thing is quite clear, IT IS BIG.

This is not some small time, illicit kallu sarayam factory that blossomed overnight. They have been building this thing for 24 damn years. Right there, in Kudankulam. Under the very eyes of most of the protestors.

For 24 years.

Just to give you an idea on how long it has been; the initial survey for the Kudankulam plant was not done by Russia, but by the Soviet Union, whose Premier was Mikhael Gorbachev. When the site was finally decided, Rajiv Gandhi was still alive and was busy kick-backing. And, Sachin Tendulkar was a talented 17 year old who was just pitchforked into the Indian team, before he had played a Ranji Trophy match.

My question to the protestors is, what were you doing all this while? Waiting for Sachin to score 100 hundreds?

Sure, some people will point out that there were protests against the plant, since 1987. But those were your little protests, protests that happen in India everyday. The meetings where 20-30 old men, armed with conspiracy theories and a lot of time, hold up one placard and call it a protest.

If you happened to read that link, the biggest protest against the plant, had a grand total of 150 people.

That protest looked something...like this

More people participated, back in my college, in a protest against the mess food.

Today, after 24 years of continuous construction, when the plant is finally complete and ready to go critical, suddenly you have a mob of 20,000 people converging onto this hitherto non-descript village and make a very big fuss. It is as if, these 20,000 people had a simultaneous epiphany regarding the Kudankulam power station.

This feeling, occuring simultaneously, in 20,000 ppl

And these guys are so bloody stubborn. Even when Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, a man who knows a little bit about nuclear science, personally came down to Kudankulam and assured them on the plant’s safety, they simply refused to budge.

Do the protestors know something that Dr Kalam doesn’t?  Have they utilized the intervening period of 24 years to do an in-depth study on the plant’s effect on the local eco-system? Do they possess conclusive, scientific proof that Kudankulam is unsafe?

Do they have enough data to prove all Indian scientists, starting from Dr Kalam and down, conclusively wrong?

Simply put, does the protest have a strong, scientific foundation to it?

Turns out

3. THERE IS NO SCIENTIFIC JUSTIFICATION FOR THIS WHOLE PROTEST

When you are protesting against a project, which involves a branch of science, that is out of bounds for 99 percent of the scientific community, you need to tick two boxes

1. The Guy who is leading the protest should be qualified.

2. The arguments that he, which by extension covers the whole protest, is putting forth should be scientifically credible.

For item no 1, let us meet the leader of this agitation. A certain gentleman called S P Udayakumar, or as it appears in the media, Dr S P Udayakumar.

I give it to him, that he means business when he argues against the plant. And the vehemence he argues, makes Arnab Goswami look like that timid Scooby Doo sidekick, Shaggy. And in today’s world of television, that is all you need to get you the airtime.

What our glorious media didn’t do was, verify whether this dude had the standing and the merit to elucidate on this subject. A subject which as I said before, is out of bounds for anybody except the best of the best of the best, scientists. I assume the guys in the studio just saw the prefix Dr, deduced Dr = Knowledgeable man = Rightful leader of the protest, and made him an all India phenomenon.

It is not a difficult ask you know, to verify Udayakumar’s merit on this subject. It is not as if they are looking for India’s nuclear launch codes.
Turns out, he is not.

Dr SP Udayakumar, is a Masters in Literature from Kerala University, and a P.Hd in Political Science from the University of Hawaii.

A DOCTORATE IN POLITICAL SCIENCE.

India’s biggest nuclear power plant is today being held hostage by a literary arts dude.

Mein appki feelings samajh sakti hoon, aap log please Baith Jaiye.

How in this Universe, is a political science guy, qualified to lead a protest against a Nuclear power plant? Mind you as a leader, this guy does not stop himself with presenting his outrageous theories about the plant to the innocent villagers. He is also actively blocking, genuine attempts made by the government, to present an accurate picture to the Kudankulam people.

According to him, a PH.D in Political Science, knows more about the nittie-gritties of a Nuclear power plant, than someone who is a P.HD in, well, actual science.

Checklist Item 1, FAIL.

I am not saying, that protests led by people, who do not have the requisite qualifications, are flawed. All I am saying, is that the protest, should have the necessary justification. If Dr Udayakumar feels he is not qualified to do an in-depth scentific study himself, all he had to do was commission some actual scientists. They could undersand the plant, analyze its effects on the local population and submit a full fledged paper.

Which brings us to Item no 2 on the checklist

Where is a report/paper/study for Kudankulam, on the basis of which, Dr Udaya Kumar is fighting? A report that provides the scientific justification for the protest.

I tried hard to find one that resembled what I mentioned above. After arduous googling, this is what I found, a post written by Dr Udaya Kumar himself, on the perils of Kudankulam.

This was, by far, the worst document I have seen in my life, and this includes my own writing. And, that is saying something.

First and foremost, the document has absolutely no sources, no citations. Nothing, zilch. I mean, I run a supposedly humorous website, named after a comedy character in a Tamil movie and I cite sources. So how can someone get away without citing any, especially when you consider that fact that he is trying to relocate a nuclear power plant?

As for the points in the post, they are so awfully bad, that even a conspiracy theorist will reject them as outrageous.

For Example

Point no 1: Even when the KKNPP projects function normally without any incidents and accidents, they would be emitting Iodine 131, 132, 133, Cesium 134, 136, 137 isotopes, strontium, tritium, tellurium and other such radioactive particles into our air, land, crops, cattle, sea, seafood and ground water. Already the southern coastal belt is sinking with very high incidence of cancer, mental retardation, down syndrome, defective births due to private and government sea-sand mining for rare minerals including thorium. The KKNPP will add many more woes to our already suffering people.

If you didn’t bother to read it, here is the gist. The dude says, because of the radioactive materials leaving the plant and mixing with the water and food, something like this is going to happen in Kudankulam, really really soon

Now, this is the city of Mumbai.

As you can see, there is a nuclear reactor, right in the middle of the city. A city of 30 Million people.

And last known, they have not transformed into some version of The Incredible Hulk meets the Godzilla. Which means, people of Kudankulam and the nearby villages are safe from the ‘monster’ that is the Kudankulam power plant.

And if you think in case of a disaster, the whole area will be wiped out and thousands will die, then well you are wrong.

The total number of fatalities, directly or indirectly, due to a Nuclear power plant meltdown, from 1960-2011, across the globe, is FIFTY.

YES, 50 IN ALL. AND THIS INCLUDES CHERNOBYL AND FUKUSHIMA.

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf06app.html



Hell, the probability of Kudankulam people, getting killed after being run over by a bicycle, is higher.

Another one

Point no 3:  More than 1 million people live within the 30 km radius of the KKNPP which far exceeds the AERB (Atomic Energy Regulatory Board) stipulations. It is quite impossible to evacuate this many people quickly and efficiently in case of a nuclear disaster at Koodankulam.

This is the map in and around the Koodankulam power plant, with a radius of 40 kms in all directions. 10 Kms more than what Dr Udayakumar has considered.

Now, the Kudankulam power plant, is flanked by three major sub-districts.

To the North is Radhapuram sub-district ,which includes the Koodankulam power plant itself. Total Population: 2, 64, 595

To the West is Agastheeswaram sub-district, Total Population: 4, 93, 852. Now the two major population centres in this sub-district, cities of Kaniyakumari and Nagerkoil, are more than 50 Kms away from the plant.

Take them out, the figure falls down to, 1,29, 371.

To the east is Sathankulam sub-district. Total population: 96, 820.

Total population, of the area as specified by Dr Udaya kumar + 10 Kms:  4, 90, 786

Only 5,00,000 short of the Million people as claimed by Udayakumar.

This dude, to get his point across, has straight up doubled the population of the nearby areas. And in some interviews, he is even quoting the population as 1.5 million.

This guy, simply put, exaggerating the local population numbers to Bibilical proportions.

Finally, the population of the village of Koodankulam: 11, 029. In his quest for some grandiose statistic, he forgot this one.

Finally

Point 6:  The quality of construction and the pipe work and the overall integrity of the KKNPP structures have been called into question by the very workers and contractors who work there in Koodankulam. There have been international concerns about the design, structure and workings of the untested Russian-made VVER-1000 reactors.

The Chinese have been building a power plant with Russian help, equipped with the same VVER-1000 Nuclear reactor.

A short while ago, this very reactor was declared as the safest nuclear reactor in the world. That too not by some literary arts dude like Dr Udaya kumar, but by the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA). You know the global agency responsible for the safety of Nuclear power plants.

THE GUY’S WHOSE JOB IS TO SUPERVISE NUCLEAR REACTORS ACROSS THE WORLD, CALL THE VVER-1000, THE SAFEST REACTOR IN THE WHOLE WORLD.

NEED I SAY MORE?

For me, the whole post reads as if the Kudankulam Power plant is the harbinger of apocalypse for the state of Tamil Nadu and India in general. That too in the ‘I Say So, So it must be true’ mode of argument.

I really wanted to fisk the whole thing, but these three points prove what I set ou to prove

Whatever this guy is saying is total tosh.

Which means there is absolutely no scientific basis for this protest.

Checklist Item no 2: BIG FAIL

Before somebody says, let me admit that I am not a nuclear physicist or a scientist. There is this comprehensive government report which counters every argument of this dude.

BTW, DR Udaya Kumar, if by any chance you happen to read this, please tell me why do you keep asking the government for white papers, black papers, etc etc to prove Kudankulam is safe. Isn’t is bloody time you give a document like the one above to prove why Kudankulam is unsfe?

So to sum it up, the reasons for the protests are dodgy, the timing is skeptical and there is not even a tiny thread of rationality behind it. So why protest at all?


2. THE WHOLE SHEBANG IS BEING RIGGED

Generally the Prime Minister open his mouth rarely and speaks even less. And whenever he or for that matter, any of his ministers speak, this is how most of us react

And our reactions were more or less similar, when our Prime Minister went back to the 1980′s vintage, ‘Foreign Hand’  theory when he railed against the Kudankulam protest.

This time however, for a change, he made sense.

The story actually begins in 1974. The year in which Indira Gandhi decided, that India needed some nuke bombs.

Let us say the US was as benevolent towards India after that nuclear test, as US today is towards Iran.

In line with the US policy of benevolence, India was slapped with a trade embargo, which among other things, prevented us from getting something called, Uranium. And without the Uranium, the entire nuclear infrastructure in the country at that time, went into panic mode. The reactors were scaled down and the power generation was cut, because we did not have sufficient fuel.

Because India refused to sign the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, no Uranium rich, decadent western country, was willing to sell Uranium to us. According to them, If India ever gets Uranium, she will peddle it to the first crackpot dictator who wants to build a bomb.

Pictured: Crackpot Dictator

India was effectively placed in a quarantine, and denied access to anything that was remotely related to ‘Nuclear’

The status-quo continued till 2008, when George W Bush arrived in India.

Amidst all the despicable things George.H.W.Bush has inflicted on this world, he has to get credit for one thing.

He was the only guy who got Manmohan Singh to talk. In fact ‘Dubya’ Bush is singularly responsible for Manmohan, speaking  up for something, that does not have the word ‘Gandhi’ in it.

Google image search result for 'Manmohan Singh Speaking' before 2008

If you are wondering If I am making that up, here is a clue,  do the words INDO-US NUCLEAR DEAL mean anything to you?

Well, for Manmohan Singh, it meant a lot. Hell, it meant so much that, MMS flipped the normal protocol of ‘Madam Tell, Me Follow’, upside down. And he allowed a India, a brief glimpse of a part of his anatomy, that is called the spine. For the first and the last time as a P.M, he opposed a major coalition partner, stood his ground and got something done.

MMS single-handedly ended, for good, India’s three decade long nuclear isolation.

But, there are no free lunches in the capitalist world.

When the US guys told us they will take care of that NPT thingy and get us all the Uranium we need, as a quid pro pro, they demanded a major slice in the Indian nuclear power pizza. In fact they wanted the whole pizza. You see, the whole point of this generous nuclear deal, was to ensure the US derives the maximum economic benefit out of our inevitable nuclear boom.

And a major hurdle in the quest for that pizza.

Kudankulam

You see, the reactors used to generate electricity in Kudankulam, the aforementioned VVER-1000 reactors, are a direct competitor to General Electric’s Advanced Boiling Water Reactor. And if the VVER-1000 is successful, India might opt for more of these reactors to satiate her power demands, which are projected to go North.

And if that happens, the US would become the guy, who did everything possible to impress a girl, only to see a direct competitor walking away with the credit and the girl on the first date.

Just think about it, the other Nuclear project announced after the deal was signed, was Jaitapur. And it was a French one. And guess what is happening there,

In short, USA has every reason, to pray for the failure of Kudankulam. Because, if it is successful, they have the most to lose.

After the PM’s accusation in that Science Magazine interview, the Home Ministry, moved quickly to freeze the accounts of four NGO’s, Tuticorin Diocese Association (TDA), Tuticorin Multipurpose Social Service Society (TMSSS), People’s Education for Action and Liberation and Good Vision trust.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, they were misdirecting the funds meant for social work, to fund a political protest. Which is explicitly stated as wrong,

The ministry of home affairs, has an amazing web-page. They list all the transactions made by the NGO’s who receive  more than one crore a year.

Here is the 2010-2011 account statement of the Tuticorin Multipurpose Social Service Society (TMSSS).

If you notice, the maximum money, has been spent, in activities, mysteriously classified as ‘Others’. No explanation has been given on what those activites constitute. Now, this particluar NGO has received more than Rs 42 crores in foreign donations, over the last five years.

But, they don’t even have a website of their own. A website where they can publish detailed accounts of what they are doing with all the money. Introduce some modicum of transparency. Now, why is that?

Similiarly, the other NGO, the Tuticorin Diocese Association, received 22 crores in the same period. And they too, do not have a website, or a statement.

So, this mysterious money trail leads to a dead end. But that is not the only problem. On 6th of February, the Home ministry stated, that these very NGO’s received 54 crores from sources abroad.

Now, with a very minimum knowledge of economics, I think Rs 54 crores is quite a lot of money. And, according to the Home Ministry, they do not have the accounts to show for it. And no person from these two NGO’s has come out and given a convincing reply to the Home Ministry’s accusation.

In fact two NGO’s in question, are headed by the same guy, one Bishop Yvon Ambroise. And, since the day the report was published in the Hindu, this person has gone underground. I mean, if you are so honest about your financials, why this mysterious silence?

Similiarly, the home ministry also alleges that, DR Udayakumar, received Rs 1.5 crores of cash, in his account,to fund this agitation. In typical, Udayakumar style, he countered it aggressively, even invoking capital punishment in his defence. And, his NGO, the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) released its own account statement, to prove its innocence. This what they said

    Total fund collection: Rs 25, 17,991. Collected Rs 200 from every household in Idinthakarai with additional help coming from Fishermen, beedi workers etc etc, who contributed 10 percent of their earnings.
    Total expenditure: Rs 17,64,233. Spent on hiring transport, diesel genset, marquees, and supply of water to the people who congregate at the protest fast venue.

As usual, no specifics have been given. Also, they do not have a website where they can publish a detailed report. And, our media as is the norm, didn’t bother to verify this statement.

Turns out, the village of Idinthakarai has a total population of 3996. Assuming 3 members per household, total households in that village: 1332.

Going by Udayakumar’s assertion and assuming every household contributed, the total amount collected comes to: Rs 2, 66, 400.

Where did you get the rest of the money, i.e  Rs 22, 51 ,591, from Dr Udaya Kumar? Are you telling us that the fishermen and beedi workers from Kudankulam contributed this amount??

Or is the Prime Minister right, when he says, Foreign money is at play?

Paying protestors to campaign against a venture by your competitor, is an old tactic in India. Every industrialist, worth his or her salt, has done it at some point of time in his/her life.

But in this case, I am unduly worried, because this protest has taken a direction, a direction that does not augur well for the security of our country

1. THE WHOLE PROTEST IS BEING RELIGIOUSLY MOTIVATED

Remember the Bishop Ambroise in the previous para. Well, he is on record, with his opposition to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power plant. Now this person is not some layman voicing his views on this subject. He is a bishop, a very senior guy in the hierarchy of the church.


Why is a representative of the church, that too a Bishop, actively taking part in the protest?

There is not even the usual excuse that he is acting out of his own free will. The Roman Catholic Church is an organization that is proud of its command chain. No church member, I believe, can act independently without the sanction of someone from above. And when guy  leading this protest is a senior functionary in the church, it can mean only one thing

The Anti-Kudankulam protest, has the blessing, from the highest levels of the Church hierarchy.

Now, the church, preferred to stay silent for the entire duration of the first and the second world wars. Hell, this is an organization which did not speak up, when Nazis were carrying out the world’s most brutal elimination program. Even when they knew about it.

So, why, is it taking a pro-active interest in a nittie-gritties of a Nuclear Power Plant, somewhere down in South India?

The involvement of the church cannot be dismissed lightly. In rural Tamil Nadu, for most of the villagers, the voice of reason happens to be the local Parish priest. And all the Parish priests, in and around Kudankulam are heavily against the establishment of the power plant. And they are making no bones about their stand on this issue. And they don’t even have a choice. The person on top of them in the hierarchy, has made his stand very clear.

When a priest, in his Sunday mass and service, exhorts the villagers to join the protest, what is it that they are going to do?

As a result, most of the people in and around Kudankulam are joining the protests, not because they believe in the cause. They are turning up, because their priest asked them to. And they are admitting it openly.

This means, what was supposed to be a peaceful public protest, has, as the Indian Express put it brilliantly, been hijacked by the local diocese and the church. And that is not a good sign.

Not for a country, that calls itself secular.

The only thing that has irked me more than this shameless religious takeover of the movement, is our mainstream media’s turning a Nelson’s eye towards it. If it did not, then why aren’t there more damning articles, like this one, on the role of the Church in the Kudankulam agitation?

Why this thing is not the ‘BURNING QUESTION’ on TIMES NOW? WHY IS IT NOT ON ‘FACE THE NATION’?

And finally, where is this guy?

Figure it out yourself

I mean, when people from the RSS, a Hindu group with no connection to the inner sanctum of Hindu religion, went and participated in a public movement, this dude wasted no time in painting the entire movement with a saffron brush. According to him, ‘Communal forces’ were attempting to use the ‘Platform’ of a ‘Public Movement’ to ‘threaten the social fabric of the country’. Or some nonsense like that.

But here, people who are high up in the Church hierarchy, representing the church, are actively aiding and abetting this unreasonable protest,

So, why the eff is this guy quiet? Why the hell is everybody quiet?

Unfortunately, I do not have answers to these questions.

On a side note: I am not too sure of this thing’s relevance to the article but thought you should know. While looking up Bishop Yvon Ambroise, I stumbled onto this. There is even a nice letter, written to the Vatican, complaining about atrocities, illegalities, arrogance and ignorance of the bishop. Do read it.





“Thirteen Reasons Why We Do Not Want the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project”


We have been opposing the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) ever since it was conceived in the mid-1980s. The people of Koodankulam village themselves were misled by false promises such as 10,000 jobs, water from Pechiparai dam in Kanyakumari district, and fantastic development of the region. We tried in vain to tell them that they were being deceived. Without any local support, we could not sustain the anti-Koodankulam movement for too long.

Now the people of Koodankulam know and understand that this is not just a fisherfolk’s problem, they may be displaced, and they have to deal with radioactive poison. Their joining the movement in 2007 has invigorated the campaign now. And (almost) all of us here in the southernmost tip of India oppose the Koodankulam NPP for a few specific reasons:

[1] The KKNPP reactors are being set up without sharing the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Site Evaluation Study and Safety Analysis Report with the people, or the people’s representatives or the press. No public hearing has been conducted for the first two reactors either. There is absolutely no democratic decision-making in or public approval for this project.

[2] The Tamil Nadu Government G.O. 828 (29.4.1991 – Public Works Department) establishes clearly that “area between 2 to 5 km radius around the plant site, [would be] called the sterilization zone.” This means that people in this area could be displaced. But the KKNPP authorities promise orally and on a purely adhoc basis that nobody from the neighboring villages would be displaced. This kind of adhocism and doublespeak causes suspicion and fears of displacement.

[3] More than 1 million people live within the 30 km radius of the KKNPP which far exceeds the AERB (Atomic Energy Regulatory Board) stipulations. It is quite impossible to evacuate this many people quickly and efficiently in case of a nuclear disaster at Koodankulam.

[4] The coolant water and low-grade waste from the KKNPP are going to be dumped in to the sea which will have a severe impact on fish production and catch. This will undermine the fishing industry, push the fisherfolks into deeper poverty and misery and affect the food security of the entire southern Tamil Nadu and southern Kerala.

[5] Even when the KKNPP projects function normally without any incidents and accidents, they would be emitting Iodine 131, 132, 133, Cesium 134, 136, 137 isotopes, strontium, tritium, tellurium and other such radioactive particles into our air, land, crops, cattle, sea, seafood and ground water. Already the southern coastal belt is sinking with very high incidence of cancer, mental retardation, down syndrome, defective births due to private and government sea-sand mining for rare minerals including thorium. The KKNPP will add many more woes to our already suffering people.

[6] The quality of construction and the pipe work and the overall integrity of the KKNPP structures have been called into question by the very workers and contractors who work there in Koodankulam. There have been international concerns about the design, structure and workings of the untested Russian-made VVER-1000 reactors.

[7] The then Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment and Forest Mr.Jairam Ramesh announced a few months ago that the central government had decided not to give permission to KKNPP 3-6 as they were violating the Coastal Regulation Zone stipulations. It is pertinent to ask if KKNPP 1 and 2 are not violating the CRZ terms.

[8] Many political leaders and bureaucrats try to reassure us that there would be no natural disasters in the Koodankulam area. How can they know? How can anyone ever know? The 2004 December tsunami did flood the KKNPP installations. There was a mild tremor in the surrounding villages of Koodankulam on March 19, 2006. On August 12, 2011, there were tremors in 7 districts of Tamil Nadu.

[9] Indian Prime Minster himself has spoken about terrorist threats to India’s nuclear power plants. Most recently, on August 17, 2001, Minister of State for Home, Mr. Mullappally Ramachandran said: “the atomic establishments continue to remain prime targets of the terrorist groups and outfits.”

[10] The important issue of liability for the Russian plants has not been settled yet. Defying the Indian nuclear liability law, Russia insists that the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA), secretly signed in 2008 by the Indian and Russian governments, precedes the liability law and that Article 13 of the IGA clearly establishes that NPCIL is solely responsible for all claims of damages.

[11] In 1988 the authorities said that the cost estimate of the Koodakulam 1 and 2 projects was Rs. 6,000 crores. In November 1998, they said the project cost would be Rs. 15,500. In 2001, the ministerial group for economic affairs announced that the project cost would be Rs. 13,171 crores and the Indian government would invest Rs. 6,775 crores with the remainder amount
coming in as Russian loan with 4 percent interest. The fuel cost was estimated to be Rs. 2,129 crores which would be entirely Russian loan. No one knows the 2011 figures of any of these expenses. No one cares to tell the Indian public either.

[12] The March 11, 2011 disaster in Fukushima has made it all too clear to the whole world that nuclear power plants are prone to natural disasters and no one can really predict their occurrence. When we cannot effectively deal with a nuclear disaster, it is only prudent to prevent it from occurring. Even the most industrialized and highly advanced country such as Germany has decided to phase out their nuclear power plants by the year 2022.Switzerland has decided to shun nuclear power technology. In a recent referendum, some 90 percent of Italians have voted against nuclear power in their country. Many Japanese prefectures and their governors are closing nuclear power plants in their regions. Both the United States and Russia
have not built a new reactor in their countries for 2-3 decades ever since major accidents occurred at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.

In our own country, Mamta Banerjee government in West Bengal has stopped the Russian nuclear power park project at Haripur in Purba Medhinipur district and taken a position that they do want any nuclear power project in their state. Similarly, the people of Kerala have decided not to host any nuclear power project in their state.

[13] And finally, the Indian government’s mindless insistence on nuclear power, utmost secrecy in all of its nuclear agreements and activities, and its sheer unwillingness to listen to the people’s concerns and fears make us very doubtful about the real benefactors of all this nuclear hoopla. Is it all for us, the people of India? Or for the corporate profits of the Russian, American and French companies? Or for the Indian military? Are the lives and futures of the Indian citizens inferior to all these?