For the first time after nearly five-and-a-half months, the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) received its optimum strength of around 950 technical and non-technical personnel and 100 Russian technocrats on Tuesday morning when operations were revived following the State Cabinet resolution on early commissioning of the plant on Monday.
However, the final touches to the first of the two 1,000 MWe reactors of the KKNPP and completion of work in the second unit can be carried out only after contract labourers, mostly from north India, return. They had threatened to leave Kudankulam and the neighbouring villages for good after the anti-KKNPP struggle started.
“Though the unexpected stalling of construction activities was quite painful for me at a time when we were eagerly awaiting the commissioning of the plant, I am elated now, as I'm boarding our bus to reach the KKNPP site after a long gap of nearly six months,” said V. Shanmuganathan, an engineer attached to the electrical section. As the Cabinet resolution cleared the final hurdle in the resumption of work at KKNPP, around 300 workers were sent inside the plant amidst tight security for the night shift on Monday. Since anti-nuke activists, who were highly agitated over the change in the State government's stance, were in no mood to allow the technicians from going in, the KKNPP administration transported around 950 personnel on Tuesday by buses that left Anu Vijay Township at 5.30 a.m. Around 100 Russian technicians, who have been deployed at by Atomstroyexports, the supplier of the 1,000 MWe VVER reactors, also went in.
“I have worked in several nuclear power projects across the country and stayed near project sites along with my family members. However, none of us have suffered any health-related issues all these years. Now we're returning to work after all hurdles have been cleared finally,” said a visibly elated K. Baiju of the mechanical section.
Keywords: KKNPP, Kudankulam, anti-Kudankulam protests, Kudankulam nuclear plant, nuclear energy, Tamil Nadu power crisis, nuclear safety, Kudankulam plant safety
Nuclear energy is not a Renewable source of energy. No body could
answer what are we going to do with N waste. Not only any disasters
like earth quake or tsunami but also manual errors also can harm
people. The ill effects of N accidents can be incurred from the fate
of people of Chernobyl . More than 1 lakh people had died slowly
because of a manual error in the chernobyl plant. Indian Govt did not
give enough compensation to Bhopal victims. Dow chemicals on the other
hand recruiting Indian students from universities.Many countries are
closing the N plants and changing to Renewable energies.
The anti-nuclear protest was merely a stunt as we never worried about our environment, moreover sand is being quarried in rivers for many years depleting water resources affecting agriculture, there was never a movement so strong like anti-nuclear protest conducted to stop this... then why these people worry about nuclear disaster, which might not even happen with current satefy standards!
Both central and state governments are successful by creating the power cuts in the state and turned the frustration of the public against the protestors who are protesting for their livelihood. The root cause of the recent power cuts were due to maintenance work and years of poor management of power. General public thinks that KNNPP will resolve all their power woes..fact is it is NOT going to resolve their problem. People in western districts & Chennai want to enjoy the “Power” by sacrificing the people of Tirunelveli and Tutucorin districts
@Jitendra Dutta -I agree with you and also you should check Ukraine where the worse Nuclear accident happened-Chernobyl and have they shut down all nuclear power plants??? Far from it Souce Wikipedia:"In 2006, the government planned to build 11 new reactors by the year 2030, in effect, almost doubling the current amount of nuclear power capacity.[167] Ukraine's power sector is the twelfth-largest in the world in terms of installed capacity, with 54 gigawatts (GW).[166] In 2007 47.4% of power came from coal and gas (approx 20% gas), 47.5% from nuclear (92.5 TWh) and 5% from hydro."
The state is in dire need for power, people in cities like Chennai who just have two hours of power cut cannot even imagine how it is to live in a place where you do not have power for nearly 9 hours a day which includes 6 hrs in the day. for people like us its quite a relief to know that the plant is going to be up and operational, besides that anyone who says find alternate solution for power should also think about the immediate solution for the current power crisis, because a lot of businesses and other small scale industries rely on power which they need not 5 years later but NOW.
Though the Tamiladu government's decision might have been well received, given the extent of sufferings the state has undergone in recent times due to power crisis, the way people's fears were not addressed is a matter of regret. If there exists a way by which nuclear plants can be made safe, then why have developed nations started chalking out plans to de-commission their existing nuclear installations, post Fukushima. We are planning to instal more nuclear plants in near future, when the west community has started discussions on de-commisioning existing ones. Those who protested at Idindhakarai cannot be termed anti national as they are struggling for their livelihood. People sitting at a safer distance and condemning their acts, are you sure, the power crisis in the state is going to come down once the plant is commissined, let's debate after three months.
I would like to ask Mr. Udhaya Kumar or anyother person who has protesting against these plants as to where were they all these years the plant was under construction. I just refer to one of the interviews by these people who say that, had it been a thermal plant or a hydel plant other than a nuclear plant we would have supported it, But i dont think this plant suddenly turned out to be a nuclear one out of the blue. It was built as a nuclear plant, commissioned as one.. So where were these people all these years when the plant was under construction. Now out of nowhere, they come and jus play obstructionist game just to halt the progress of our nations. Mr. Manmohan singh was right when he said that these people were acting under foreign interests.
The KKNP project should be commissioned, even if that means relocating entire villager's from Koodankulam.As Bhagavat Gita says, if you can save a country by sacrificing a village, do it. People of Tamilnadu are not at mercy of Udayakumar or like minded people, who are spreading panic among undoubting villagers.
The respondents of this article should aware about the catastrophic consequences of nuclear power plant, at least pay an indipendant visit to the villages near to any nuclear power plant and carryout an unbiased observation. Nuclear power is any way dangerous and Tamilnadu government has taken a wrong decision in the case of continuation of the work of KKNPP without considering the plea of thousands of poor villagers who voted the government to power. All humanitarians should extent their support to Udaykumar and thousands of local residents who still courageously continues their struggle to protect their life and livelihood.
1) Electricity is must one for State/central. Lots of industries not function well, worker starving or committing sucide, even household are affected.Revenue loss to govt. 2)Awareness against nuclear should have come first before they start KKNP project.It's too late now. 3)Protester can allow functioning KKKP provided, if the central meet out the following condition: A) Need to go for alernative/stop KKNPP after 5 years. B) Villages must be fully insured if during that functioning of KKNPP periods. C) Allow all the power generated from this KKNPP should only be given to State govt. 4) We have consider both public and Govt, if one wins, other will loose. Pls don't take it emotionally this matter.When the people working in Army, they have to sacrify their when war comes. The same situation here, Worst come worst, Protester have to do the same for the state( They can't be too selfsih for them)
Although this seems like a welcome decision which will enhance the power production in the country one cannot help but consider the consequences in the event of a failure. Our imminent scientists including Dr Abdul Kalam has assured the nation that the nuclear plant in kudankulam will be impervious to any disaster, natural or man-made. However the recent nuclear policies followed by Germany, a pioneer of Nuclear energy & power, in which they have started phasing out the nuclear plants and going for something more subtle shows that even the most advanced countries are worried about the consequences of a nuclear disaster. India has a huge hunger for power which eventually needs to be satisfied thus even if we have to set up nuclear plants it should be located far off from any human settlements so as to mitigate losses in the event of a disaster. Effort should thus be made to reduce losses due to transmission.
Normally missionaries work in the area where poverty exists or they create poverty and work for uplifting this poors in the name of God and spread their relegion.This we have seen among Orrisa tribals. If Kudamkulam becomes operable,India is in the path os Energy security and the area will be Progressive. Then These missionaries' agenda cannot work. So Govt should seriously think about these agents' source of income. These Missionaries should not be allowed to function in rural area. If some body looks in deep. it can be found from Rajasthan Atomic power projects to KKNP
I am disappointed to learn that anti-NPP agitations are spearheaded by church supported groups in Kudankulam. Church is a place of worship and it should confine itself to matters of spirituality. Church is not equipped to pass judgement on the safety and efficacy of a NPP just as an NPP operator has no place in opining on religious matters. If church indulges in politics it should be treated as such that is a political party not a religious entity. Stop mixing politics and religion. As Marx said religion is the opium for the masses and priests are the conduits to administer the opiate.
@Udaya Kumar: There are no serious agitations against NPP in rest of the world contrary to your assertions. In the US about 20% of electricity is nuclear based and it just approved building a new NPP after a gap of 32 years. France gets about 80% of electricity from nuclear sources. Similarly Finland is a heavy user of NPP, so are East European countries. China has embarked on building a large number of NPPs. In fact according to The Economist one of the obstacles to NPP of high building cost may be greatly reduced by lower labor cost and economies of scale in China. Germany being a favorite example cited by anti-nuclear activists, we should know that Germany has plans to shut down NPPs by 2018 but decisions may be reversed by then. Besides Germany buys electricity from eastern europe and France where some of that electricity is from nuclear sources. Germany also have ready access to abundant gas from Russia for gas fired plants. India is not Germany, so please stop comparing the two.
@Udaya Kumar: It is not as simple to replace fossil fuel or nuclear power plants with solar or wind power. First, they are intermittent in nature, that means during night time no solar power and during windless days no wind power. Secondly the land requirement for a solar power plant of equivalent capacity as a NPP is hundreds of square kilometers where as an NPP can be located in an industrai park - in a densely populated country like India with scarcity of fallow land that is huge problem as we have seen in recent anti-land acquisition agitations across the country. Thirdly NPP is up to 93% efficient whereas a solar power plant is only about 20% efficient, that means an NPP can generate up to 93% of its installed capacity where as a solar plant can only up to 20% of its installed capacity at any point in time. Fourthly there are far less number of accidents and death in NPP accidents as compared to coal mines and coal power plants.
People who support Kudankulam - dont you know your arguments are baseless. When are you going to wake up to the ill effects of nuclear power plant. The recent power shortage in the state is because of the central govt not sharing enough power to the state. This is a way for them to make people obey their orders. They will open the plant and whoever supports it along with your childrens will fall prey to it.
Most of the readers who have commented here, have welcomed the decision of the Government to open the Nuclear Power plant. These people have been ignorant of the effects of nuclear radiation on the people, who live around the Kalpakkam Nuclear Power Plant (MAPS & IGCAR), near Chennai.
It has been reported that, many of the villagers are already suffering from the ill-effects of the radiation. They are not getting any medical aid from the Nuclear Power Corporation, nor from the Government of India. All these illiterate villagers have accepted this as their fate and moving on with their daily lives.
The Government does not have to invest thousands of crores for nuclear power generation. Much more electricity can be generated with clean Green technologies, for the same level of investment. If the government of India could reduce the Transmission&Distribution loss from the current 35-40% to 10-12%, we do not have to add any new power plant at all for the next 10 years.
Wise decision by the honorable CM! Kudos for not being a populist and
doing something for your state and country as a whole.
Only a couple of comments expounding comprehension of civilisation! Sixty years from Gandhian sacrifice to fascism is all Indian education has achieved. We have just reserved the punitive sentence on the future of the southern peninsula. Going by the tone of the majority of the comments (which most probably is the view of a pampered minority), we should very soon see rabid discussion on legislation required to reintroduce slavery as an economic means of rapid development. I only hope the authors of the celebratory comments are young enough to experience the troubles ahead. Or maybe they will be riding high on their power trip. When and if honest history is written in the future, the promoters of nuclear power will be held responsible for the annihilation of life. What a fall for a great civilisation!
The reason TN is facing power shortage is because 1.Maintenance work on the power units are not coordinated and many are happening at the same time. 2. New power units are not planned and constructed to meet increasing demand 3. Power from wind units could not be procured at a reasonable price (thanks to Manmohan for his reforms). Power from nuclear power station is not going to address even 1% of our power requirements. We need to consider the downsides of nuclear power. NO ONE in the world has a real solution to recycle spent nuclear fuel. I live from 20 miles from a nuclear reactor in the USA. There are large pools in all the nuclear reactor building to store the spent fuel rods. The only other alternate is to store them in underground or in deep caves. The cost of maintaining the spent fuel is astronomical and it is a real burden on the future generation. How can we just HOPE that scientist can develop a solution to this issue in the future? Can we pledge our future?
That is great! My kids are suffering with 12 hrs loadshedding at Kelambakkam. Tamilnadu needs 10 such plants. God bless Uday Kumar and Bhagavan bless others!
At least now better sense prevailed in the mind of the ruler.we are the
people who were affected by the delayed decision. it is better to
sacrifice one man for the good of the village and a village for the sake
of a country.
if the protesters are misguided by some vested interested people they
should be sacrificied. Mr.Udaykumar and group are such people who should
be removed from the earth.
Now we can hope some good for the state.
good opening. India will move forward and Tamilnadu will get power! let us pray good work continue and some good sense prevails. May God, be it in the form of Hindu,Christian,Muslim or any other religion, save us and give the protestors to give a good sense at least now. if they don't come to senses, perhaps India does not need such people.
So NPCIl are heaving a sigh of relief and think it is all over. So
simple as that to wipe away the tears and distress and sacrifice of
over 100.000 people who hung outside the Koodankulam property pleading
for a just a switchover of fuel with vivid pictures of Fukushima
(still ongoing) fresh in their minds. I saw them eat sloppy rice curd
gruel on a trip to the site, and clearly saw no booze and no biryani
anywhere. By just placing a few thousand policemen around the plant
does the government really think this will be all over? Better to put
security guards in front of all the homes of the people who have
approved and promoted the project instead of in front of Koodankulam.
I think you vastly underestimate the Tamilians. They are not paper
tigers like NPCIL who hide behind 6000 policemen and how long can the
government afford 6000 policemen, food etc in front of the plant? FOR
it's lifetime of 60 years? Get real and do some thinking. These
people live there. It's their territory!
A new dawn for Thamizh Nadu and for Indo-Russian relations-I am sure this plant would have it's special place in Energy History Books of the World. As for Mr. S. P Udaykumar's complaints about people not been given training on evacuation etc-I am sure they will be given when time comes the government is not that stupid not to do something so elementary as that. Deceivers and trouble makers have never prospored and they never will against Believers and those who Work Hard to make money-that is the moral of the story called KUDANKULAM NUCLEAR ENERGY PLANT every one is NOW-CLEAR about the safety aspect of the plant.
Its Srikumar Baneree right? The article says its Sukumar Banerjee...
It is a very very good move by the Govt, I think the people of tamil nadu will and should support nuclear plant, because it will partially solve the electricity problem in tamil nadu, Tamil Nadu people are now facing electricity cut ranging from 8 to 10 hours on daily basis, this Kudankulam nuclear plant will bring some relief to the people.
Surprised to see the turnaround on opening up of the Power Station. While
it is good to see the advancements, there is still a need to build
confidence among the local community. Either by education or by showing
local area development.
It is another tragic day where authorities are leting down the citizen of India. They will harass the movement. People living near the nuclear plants all over the world are protesting not just Kundankulam. The so-called educated elite does not seems to understand the depth of the issue. That why they are not coming forward to the cause of the people of Kundankulam.
Good. The KKNPP got its first green signal from the Govt. Even though
we Wasted 6 months. we people suffered blackouts. let the past is
past. letus start our days with bright future.Now a day there are more
technology available for the spent fuel processing. Nobody should
doubt our scientist and our long standing friend THE RUSSIANS. We have
to be more vigilant, there are more countries which are trying to give
trouble to suppress our progress to become as a super power. No power
on earth
can stop our march towards the pinnacle of human value and freedom.
There is no country like INDIA - BHARATH. Jai Hind.
Everyone knows these type of plants are not safe and it will endanger the livelihood of the local people. I dont think any body should play GOD.
India need energy that is solar . or wind - that can be renewable
people living near the nuclear plants all over the world protesting not just Kundankulam.
It is all meant for some political gain not really in the interest of the Indian population. The
socalled educated elite does not seems to understand the depth of the issue. that is why they are not involved with this issue. The govt of Tamil Nadu also seems let
the voters left to mend it for themselves, by isolating and eliminating their leader from the ground. the harassment will start now.
for passing the 123agreement in parliament the central govt depended on the members with criminal record. Why not go for a voting or referendum from the people of Kundankulam. They are the one more eligible citizens,
The whole thing, I mean the agitation all these days and obstruction etc was an exercise in wasted time. I said four months ago that the plant will be commissioned soon as Chennai needs power. What I see is that every time the government tries to do something, many disruptors and obstructionists descend on it and tries to make some money out of it. It must stop. The Country has to move forward.
Now Mr.Udaykumar wants disaster or evacuation training! He would have
asked for it at the start of the protest. Why did he delay?
Well, we need to exercise paitence here. They should not be in a hurry to get a Nuclear reactor to work. Correct procedures are needed to be followed and if it takes more time, then let it.
Congratulations to TN and its wise CM!
I hope the govt provides disaster training to Mr. Udaykumar and his associates as he demanded so that he can end his fasting and refrain from any illegal protests against plant activities. Govt should not hesitate to arrest anyone resorting to illegal modes of agitations against the plant and its employees.
We cannot and should not halt this project but we can and should nail both the governments. They should come out with an evacuation and disaster management plan, they should constitute some kind of authority exclusively to deal with this project's disaster management and allocate funds and clearly identify contact persons.
This is a good news. Let us hope the plant will be commissioned soon.
About the evacuation training / disaster management training, it can
and will be given (it is an ongoing process) and the plant
commissioning need not be stopped for that. Periodic mock drills will
be conducted so that the population near by is alerted and knows how
to protect themselves in the unlikely case of an accident. These are
standard protocols.
The best protection against radiation and similar dangers is
education. Let us hope the local administration and plant authorities
will increase their efforts in development and education of the
population.
Tamil Nadu Govt should arrest PMANE convenor S.P. Udayakumar and
associate M. Pushparayan without Loss of any time
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