The sound of a rough, menacing sea worries Thasan Gnanprakasam the least these days. The 67-year-old fisherman casts a worried eye towards the sea ahead, about 2 km from the sparkling row of ‘tsunami’ houses where he lives. The sight of the blue sea is hidden. When he wakes up and steps out to breathe the salty air, it is the sight of domes of nuclear reactors that greet him. This is Thasan’s new worry.

The Tamil Nadu Government is worried about the delay in the signing of the new Russia-India intergovernmental agreement for four more reactors for the Rs 14,000 crore Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant near the sea side, about 85 km from Tirunelveli town. When finally commissioned, the plant will supply 2,000 MW to the country, including about 800 MW to Tamil Nadu. But the 1,500-odd Idunthakarai inhabitants — who shifted to their new colony after their village was washed away by the tsunami three years back — fear a possible nuclear leak.

Tirunelveli District Collector, G Prakash, told The Indian Express that the colony had been built by an NGO for 450 families, after consultations with the Gram Sabha and the beneficiaries. Moreover, the authorities also stuck to the prescribed nuclear safety norms while building the residential colony close to a nuclear power plant, he added.

The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board prescribes an exclusion zone around a nuclear power plant of a radius of 1.6 km. The Tsunami colony is 1.8 km away, about 200 metres outside the exclusion zone.

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