For nuclear sanity

The Tamil Nadu Cabinet's demand to suspend work at Kudankulam must be a prelude to a moratorium on all new nuclear projects pending a review. THE Tamil Nadu Cabinet's resolution urging Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to suspend work on the Kudankulam nuclear reactors until the apprehensions of the people regarding their safety are allayed represents an unprecedented and handsome victory for the popular movement against ultra-hazardous technologies. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited has all along failed to persuade the local farmers and fisherfolk that the reactors will cause minimal displacement with no damage to the marine ecosystem and that they pose no hazard to people despite offering the lure of thousands of jobs, and labour and materials supply contracts, and the promise of vigorous development of the region. The global and the Kudankulam public has no more reason to trust the Russian government's early statement than to believe the Indian Department of Atomic Energy's assessment, following a purely internal and collusive recent review, that all of India's nuclear reactors have adequate safety systems to cope with earthquakes and tsunamis as well as human error. A second reason underlying the public's sharpened opposition is the fact that the first two units of the Kudankulam project have never been put through the Environment Impact Assessment process, under which a comprehensive EIA report is prepared, made available to the local people in advance, and a public hearing is held, at which those affected can record their opposition.