‘No need to worry about nuclear plants, uranium mining’

UCIL CMD appeals for people’s cooperation in establishment of nuclear plants and mining for radioactive fuel

Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Diwakar Acharya has said that there is no need to feel concerned about establishment of new nuclear power plants or mining operations for uranium.

Delivering his address at the 18th three-day national seminar on environment protection, organised by the Chemical Engineering Department of the JNTU - A in collaboration with the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and UCIL on Monday, he said that the UCIL’s mining activity at Jaduguda in Singbhum district of Jharkand State for the last 50 years had not shown any adverse impact on ecology or the health of people.

Mr. Acharya appealed to the people to render greater cooperation to the UCIL and the government in establishment of nuclear power plants and mining for radioactive fuel in the best interests of the nation and said that the nation needed to put to use the best of technology (nuclear power) with minimal adverse effects on ecosystem and environment for generating power rather than going for large coal-based plants.

He appreciated the efforts being put in by the scientific community and the BARC in ensuring flawless operation over the years and said that BARC was a standing example of the kind of use that nuclear power could be put to if enough safety measures were taken.

“Any nuclear power plant is established only after acquiring clearance certificates from various government regulatory bodies after due testing on a range of issues starting from soil tests to probable effects on the water table in the area. Hence, the process includes a number of checks to ensure that the environment is not affected,” Mr. Acharya said.

Advocating research on a larger plane as necessary to tackle the ever rising problem of environmental pollution, he said stressed the need for developing scientific models in evaluating accurately the severity of environmental pollution and its effects before a solution was attempted to be found.

“If everyone of us decides to be a more responsible citizen of this planet and take oath to protect the environment with the help of the currently available technology and the new ones, we can drastically reduce the scope of environment pollution by the year 2030,” said the JNTU -A Vice-Chancellor K. Lal Kishore. On the other hand, he opined that research-oriented studies were the need of the hour and added that the JNTU – A was pressing ahead with renewed vigour on this aspect.