The Communist Party of India (Marxist) along with like-minded parties and civil society organisations would take up a sustained campaign against the proposed nuclear power plants (NPPs) in Andhra Pradesh, its State Secretariat member Ch. Narsinga Rao said here on Thursday.
Addressing a press conference here, he said: “We will fight tooth and nail the Centre’s plans to turn Andhra Pradesh into a nuclear power hub.” “What is not good for Gujarat and West Bengal, cannot in any way benefit Andhra Pradesh too,” he argued. In this context, he referred to the Centre’s decision to shift the site for a nuclear power plant from Mithi Virdhi in Gujarat to Kovvada in Srikakulam in the wake of stiff opposition from local people there.
On the same lines, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited had reportedly sought land between Kothapatnam and Kavali for a 7,200 MW NPP with no scope for setting up the project in East Midnapore district in West Bengal after the fishermen went on the warpath there, he added.
Making a mention of the Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disasters, he said: “The state is ill-equipped to face any such disaster. Even insurance companies are not ready to provide risk coverage.”
Alleging that the NPPs were based on outdated technology, he said the State with its vast hydrocarbon reserves in the Krishna Godavari basin could go for gas-based power plants. Tapping solar power would be a better option, he added.
