Koodankulam duty

The chief minister of Tamil Nadu,J. Jayalalithaa,has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking that work on the nuclear plant,which was being built at Koodankulam in the south of the state,be suspended till what appears to be considerable local disquiet is properly addressed. Over 100 people had been on an indefinite fast for nine days when she wrote; the area,after all,was affected by the devastating Christmastime tsunami of 2004,and the news of the effect,earlier this year,of the Pacific tsunami on the Fukushima nuclear reactor hit close to home. It will be in nobody’s interest for this protest to develop into the sort of travelling-protest,anti-American,anti-globalisation mela that attracts activists-errant from across the country.

Instead,it will be necessary for both governments and the Atomic Energy Commission to address themselves seriously to allaying the concerns that are being expressed by those who will be the plant’s neighbours. Jayalalithaa did,in fact,draw attention to the Centre’s neglect of the public information angle to this problem by saying that “no responsible minister or concerned higher authorities from the government of India have visited the people or even attempted to assuage their misgivings.”

Nuclear energy,as was proven beyond doubt during the endless discussions that marked the passage of the US-India civil nuclear cooperation agreement in 2008,is essential to India’s future. It is a major component of the unavoidable diversification of our energy requirements. Further,a continued dependence on fossil fuels risks further building up of the unhealthy levels of black carbon in India’s atmosphere,and contributing severely to global warming; both of which phenomena have a cost in lives,a cost that increases yearly. A negative feeling about nuclear energy,such as that surrounds land acquisition currently,cannot be allowed to build up. But in order to ensure that it does not do so,active leadership will be needed. Those living next to a nuclear plant need to feel assured that it is safe; safer,for example,than the Fukushima reactor,able to survive whatever the natural world might throw at it — as well as the malicious works of man. This cannot happen while the Centre is silent,while the ministries are silent,and nobody takes ownership of nuclear power. The problems that the people of Koodankulam are expressing must be addressed,and speedily.