The site clearance given to Units three to six of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has been challenged before the Madras High Court.
In his public interest litigation petition, G. Sundarrajan said he came to know from the Environment and Forest Ministry website that the AERB had accorded site clearance to the four units (each 1000 MW) by a letter dated February 9, 2011.
The communication was never made public by the authorities.
Mr. Sundarrajan said that within a five-km distance (sterilised zone) from Units three to six, there were Kudankulam, Vijayapathi and Erukkandurai villages, having a population of 28,397 as per the 2011 census.
Even as per the AERB-formulated detailed criteria for the regulation of health and safety of the personnel of nuclear power plants, the population should not exceed 20,000 in the sterilised zone. The AERB ought to have reckoned the 2021 population of the villages situated within 10 km from the power plant. Thus the site consent violated Arts.14 and 21 of the Constitution.
A Division Bench comprising Justices K.K. Sasidharan and M. Sathyanarayanan posted the case to October 30.
The petitioner is an engineering graduate and a trustee of ‘Poovulagin Nanbargal’ - a trust publishing a journal on environmental issues.
