The safety measures recommended by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) are crucial and the Kudankulam nuclear power plant should not be allowed to be commissioned without implementing these measures, argued counsel Prashant Bhushan in the Supreme Court on Thursday.
Appearing for petitioner G. Sundararajan, social activist, he submitted before a Bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra that the AERB had recommended 17 safety measures, of which only six were complied with and 11 yet to be put in place.
“The said recommendations are extremely critical to the safety of the plant and it could not be allowed to run even for a day without adequate safety and backup features in place.”
Mr. Bhushan said that immediately after the nuclear tragedy at Fukushima in Japan, the Government of India constituted a task force to review, among other things, the capability of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) to withstand and mitigate earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural phenomenon. The task force came out with the 17 recommendations for implementation before commissioning Units 1 and 2 of the KKNPP.
“The AERB now states that implementation of these measures would take six months to two years. If, by chance, any natural disaster happens before the said measures are implemented, then there is every chance of a meltdown and huge leakage of radiation that would make a large area uninhabitable for decades and would need evacuation of millions of people.”
Mr. Bhushan also drew the court’s attention to the fact that spent fuel, containing radioactive material, which was earlier agreed to be transported to Russia would now remain in the plant for seven years and its potential to cause accident had not been assessed. Even the recommendations of the Disaster Management Board had not been considered by the government.
Intervening, Solicitor-General Rohinton Nariman objected to Mr. Bhushan raising things that were not relevant for the present petition. Justice Radhakrishnan told the SG: “This is not an adversarial litigat
Justice Misra then asked the Solicitor-General “what is the guarantee that there will not be any accident [at the plant when spent fuel is stored there for seven years].” He reminded Mr. Nariman that after the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, there was still the problem of how to remove the waste.
Additional Solicitor-General Mohan Parasaran, explaining the AERB’s role, said all safety measures had been taken.
Quoting a CAG report, Mr. Bhushan said, “The CAG has stated that the AERB continues to be a subordinate authority and this failure to have an autonomous and empowered regulator is clearly fraught with grave risks.” People in the Kudankulam area were fearful of their safety if the plant was commissioned without implementing all safety measures. It was absolutely essential in the interest of life, health and safety of a large sections of the population that the precautionary principle was invoked and the government be directed not to go ahead with the project until all the recommendations of its own Task Force on safety were implemented.
In its petition, Fishermen Care said the High Court had failed to appreciate that issuing consent order to establish and operate was unlawful in the absence of the Environment Impact Assessment report and the Environmental Management Plan and the report of Public hearing.
Arguments will continue on September 27.
Keywords: anti-Kudankulam protest, KKNP, anti-nuclear protest, PMANE, nuclear safety
kudankulam Nuclear reactors are just silent killers of mankind ,marine fisheries and natural life systems in Southern Tamilnadu.The mock drill based on many unscientific assumptions like wind speed,wind directions,turbulence classification and wrong source factors during an explosion cannot give true facts on ground level concentrations of Radio active pollutants and thereby the disaster management schemes are bound to fail.Fukushima accident costs Rs4 lakhs crores while the present reactors cost only Rs.14,000 crores and so it is better to close down the reactors at kudankulam just as Germans and Japanese are going to close down their Nuclear plants because Nuclear safety has been proved to be a Myth in the aftermath of Fukushima accident in march,2011.
AERB(Atomic Energy Regulatory Board's) giving wrong statements about its own statements. I think CBI case should be filed against AERB and TN government because Dr.Gopalkrishnan ex-chief AERB told “I have studied the Indo-US nuclear deal and its formation very closely. At that time I had personally observed that there has been a great deal of money being peddled from both India and United States to buy influence in various quarters. The foreign hand and foreign money as long as it is helping the PM and his group Atomic Energy sector it is not talked about,” he said.
So its not the protestors are funded and it is the AERB and TN government are funded from foreign hands !!!
The article has very well highlighted the ignorance of people about
the technicalities of a nuclear plant. Discussions in the court means
all those technical details need to be explained and understood.
It is now necessary that the common man be taught about nuclear energy
and the safety. This is a very welcome situation. But there has to be
a basic scientific mind, an open mind and curiosity. The people who
are challenging nuclear doesn't seem to have any of these. Hapless
people are swayed by dictats of handful few having some agenda.
It is time our people rise from the bliss of ignorance and decide
their furture on their own. The Government can play an important role
to educate people from the school level. Exploitation of of the poor
should stop.
people like Bhushan ...without any Logic Poking nose on very issue...
as per media report Supreme Court said it will go only liability
issue..Not on other issues as it does Not have expertise..
then why SC is raising issue on what is the guarantee that there will
not be any accident [at the plant when spent fuel is stored there for
seven years].” ????????????
Bhushan does Not do anything productive for the country ,,,only Pokes
his nose on productive issues to put breaks..
Your newspaper is using the word 'absolute' to "strict" while
describing the liability arising out of allowing dangerous substances
to escape.
I produce an excerpt of the commentary appearing in P.J.Fitzgerald's
Salmond on Jurisprudence (fifth impression 1988 p.392) which runs
thus:
The expression formerly used was 'absolute' liability, but since
exceptions are always recognised to so-called absolute liability,
Sir.Percy Winfield suggested that a better term was "strict" liability
(The Myth of Absolute Liability 1926 42 L.Q.R. 37) and this suggestion
has since been judicially adopted.(Northern Utilities V.London
Guarantee, etc.Co. 1936 A C 108 118 119, 126)
The Judges of the Apex Court shall keep in mind these dictum while
formulating or framing any guidelines.
This comment is necessitated by the fact that Judges are arrogating to
themselves all the wisdon on land.
The Supreme Court is becoming a Super Administrator Even in japan some days back they announced that they would close the plants by 2014 and now after huge protests from the industries which rely on nuclear energy has retracted their step and withdrawn the dead line If such questions are put forward there would be no thermal power plants as they would emit lot of ash and what is the solution for Tamil nadu which has not enough Hydro electric power
potential
The supreme court has rightly voiced concern over peoples safety. i am
sure the Government has right answers and other plants in the country
are as safe as kudamkulam will be and that we would be getting
electricity soon.
"what would be the guarantee that there would be no radio active substance in the spent fuel to be stored at the controversial Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu to prevent any accident?"
If a common man asks the same question he will be satamped as an anti-national.
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