MDMK leader and Rajya Sabha member Vaiko on Tuesday urged the Central government to shut down the Kudankulam nuclear power plant permanently.
“I draw the attention of this House to the dangerous, disastrous and destructive consequences of the dumping of nuclear waste in the atomic plant at Kudankulam in my home district Tirunelveli,” Mr. Vaiko said during a Zero Hour mention in the Upper House.
He said that on November 21, 1988, when then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi said the government was going to establish an atomic plant without mentioning the location of the plant, he came to know about it through his sources. “Therefore, I vehemently opposed it and altercations took place between us,” he said. Mr. Vaiko said he had then talked about three major incidents, including one in the United States on March 28, 1978, after which no atomic plant was set up in that country. “The very same thing happened in the USSR after the Chernobyl accident on April 26, 1986. These things have to be taken into consideration. Therefore, we should not go for an atomic plant,” Mr. Vaiko said.
“Belgium, France and Germany have already shut down their atomic plants and the United States has not set up any atomic plant. But, very shockingly, on March 11, 2011, the Fukushima atomic plant disaster took place, in which thousands were killed and hundreds of thousands had to flee,” he said.
Noting that fisherfolk, particularly thousands of women in Idinthakarai near Kudankulam held an agitation for nearly two years, Mr. Vaiko said the nuclear waste, if dumped, would destroy the area.
