After Chief Minister M.K. Stalin wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to halt the construction of the ‘Away From Reactor’ (AFR) facility at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) site for storing nuclear waste, the Kudankulam Village Panchayat, under which the project site falls, has passed a resolution against setting up the facility.
As all the 15 ward members of the Village Panchayat wrote to its President Vincy Maniyarasu against establishing the facility, citing a radioactive threat to the region, the local body unanimously passed the resolution on Wednesday.
In the resolution, the ward members also condemned the KKNPP administration for going ahead with the construction of the facility despite opposition from the State government to storing highly radioactive nuclear fuel waste, “which would seriously jeopardise the environment of this region”.
In their memorandum, which was forwarded to the Village Panchayat President, the ward members said the KKNPP was operating 2X1,000 MWe nuclear reactors, besides constructing four more reactors with a similar capacity. Since the KKNPP administration, for the first time in the country, had commenced excavation work at the site for building the AFR facility for permanently storing the spent fuel generated in the reactors, it would pose a serious threat to the people living in this region over the next 70 crore years, they said.
“Even though the highly radioactive spent fuel was buried 15 metres below the ground level, the radioactivity would spread, spoiling the groundwater, the drinking water being supplied through pipes and the water being used for irrigation,” they said.
“The Village Panchayat, considering the well-being of the locals, should pass a resolution in this regard and take up this issue with the district administration so as to restrain the KKNPP administration from constructing the Away From Reactor facility on its premises,” the memorandum said.
The resolution passed by the Village Panchayat would be submitted to the Collector.
Recently, Radhapuram MLA and Speaker M. Appavu also opposed the construction of the AFR facility.
“After submitting the resolution to the Collector next week, we will give a copy of it to the Project Director of KKNPP. If the Project Director refuses to meet us, we, along with the villagers, will launch a hunger strike in front of the KKNPP site. We will also seek the support of everyone living in this region,” Ms. Maniyarasu told The Hindu’.
