"KOODANKULAM NUCLEAR POWER PLANT"

 

Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power station currently under construction in Koodankulam in the Tirunelveli district of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Project investment cost to India was estimated to be US$ 3 billion (Rs.13,615 Crores) in a 2001 agreement.

As of November 2011, thousands of protesters and villagers living around the plant are trying to avoid the possible disasters like Fukushima (speech by Gopal Gandhi, Grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, former West Bengal governor in a lecture on 'India 2021- Hazarding Guesses, Guessing Hazards' in New Delhi) by blocking highways and staging hunger strikes, preventing further construction work, as they believe that the nuclear plant is unsafe. The Peoples Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) are fighting for about 25 years in Koodankulam.

 

History:

An Inter-Governmental Agreement on the project was signed on November 20, 1988 by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. The project remained in limbo for 10 years due to political and economic upheaval in Russia after the post-1991 Soviet breakup, and also due to objections of the United States on the grounds that the agreement does not meet the 1992 terms of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

There are negotiations over the possible addition of a naval base at the site, both safeguarding the project and as a presence in the southern tip of the country. A small port became operational in Kudankulam on January 14, 2004. This port was established to receive barges carrying over sized light water reactor equipment from ships anchored at a distance of 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi). Until 2004 materials had to be brought in via road from the port of Tuticorin, risking damage during transportation.

In 2008 negotiation on building four additional reactors at the site began. Though the capacity of these reactors has not been declared, it is expected that the capacity of each reactor will be 1000 MW or 1 GW. The new reactors would bring the total capacity of the power plant to 9200 MW or 9.2 GW.

In June 2011, Sergei Ryzhov, the chief designer of the light water VVER nuclear reactors used at this Nuclear Power Plant was killed in an airplane accident. The plane belonging to the Rus-Air airlines was flying from Moscow to the Karelian capital Petrozavodsk.

 

Technical description:

Two 1 GW reactors of the VVER-1000 model are being constructed by the Nuclear Power corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and Atomstroyexport. When completed they will become the largest nuclear power generation complex in India producing a cumulative 2 GW of electric power.Both units are water cooled water moderated power reactors. The first was scheduled to start operation in December 2009 and the second one was scheduled for March 2010. Currently, the official projections put unit 1 into operation in June 2011, and unit 2 will go in March 2012.

Four more reactors are set to be added to this plant under a memorandum of intent signed in 2008. A firm agreement on setting up two more reactors, has been postponed pending the ongoing talks on liability issues. Under an inter-government agreement signed in December 2008 Russia is to supply to India four third generation VVER-1200 reactors of 1170 MW.

 

Controversy:

As of October 2011, thousands of protesters and villagers living around the Russian-built Koodankulam nuclear plant in the southern Tamil Nadu province, are blocking highways and staging hunger strikes, preventing further construction work, and demanding its closure as they distrust federal government assurances regarding safety. They fear there will be a nuclear accident similar to the radiation leak in March at Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster.

According to SP Udayakumar, of the voluntary People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy, "the nuclear plant is unsafe" and "the safety analysis report and the site evaluation study have not been made public. No public hearing was held. It's an authoritarian project that has been imposed on the people." Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told Tamil Naud Chief Minister J Jayalalitha that "all precautions would be taken at the Koodankulam nuclear plant to maintain the highest safety standards".

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has also been filed against the government’s civil nuclear program at the apex Supreme Court. The PIL specifically asks for the "staying of all proposed nuclear power plants till satisfactory safety measures and cost-benefit analyses are completed by independent agencies".

 

Safest Alternatives:

Thermal Power Station: Activists leading the agitation against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) want the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) to convert the nuclear power plant into coal-fuelled thermal power station.

Solar Power Station: Solar power is way cheaper, say experts. Interestingly, a new study by different wings of the union government says that Tamil Nadu has the potential to be the power house of south India.

Courtesy: Wikipedia