A President, a Prime Minister and a Chief Minister sitting in three different cities met virtually to dedicate the first unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) to the nation.
Nearly 28 years after Russia and India signed the agreement to set up the plant, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday did the honours through a video conference organised from Moscow, Delhi, Chennai, and Kudankulam.
The 1,000-MWe KNPP-1 is the largest single unit of electrical power in India. “At Kudankulam alone, five more units of 1,000 MWe each are planned,” Mr. Modi said.
Jayalalithaa reassures local community of Kudankulam plant’s safety
Mr. Modi pointed out that the KNPP-1 was an important addition to the country’s efforts to “scale up production of clean energy.”
Dwelling on India’s need for energy security, Mr. Putin said a fast growing and “enormous economy” like India needed nuclear energy for development.
Mr. Putin said the two countries hoped to sign the General Framework Agreement for setting up units 5 and 6 by year-end. Work commenced on units 3 and 4 in February this year.
The protests and slapping of sedition charges and arrests of activists at Kudankulam protesting against the safety of the plant seemed to weigh in on the speeches as Ms. Jayalalithaa mentioned thrice in her speech about “reassuring” the local community, and Mr. Putin spoke about the safety of the nuclear plants.
“To allay the fears of the citizens, an expert committee was formed by the State government in February 2012. The Committee heard the concerns of the people and reassured them of the safety of the project,” Ms. Jayalalithaa said. She also spoke about measures taken by the State to undertake development works in the areas near Kudankulam at a cost of Rs. 500 crore.
