Panel asks India to defer nuclear plans

A panel backed by the Indian environment ministry suggested holding off environmental approvals for four proposed nuclear reactors.

It expressed concerns over coastal degradation and safety that intensified after last month’s nuclear disaster in Japan. The four nuclear reactors, of 1,000 Megawatts each, being built in Kudamkulam in Tamil Nadu, had initially received approvals from the environment ministry in 2008. Two of them are almost ready for commissioning.
The panel’s recommendation on the four reactors at the Kudamkulam nuclear power plant, being built jointly with Russian help, is not binding.

An official at the environment ministry said that a decision on the recommendation could come in early June. Giving its reasons for suggesting that approvals for the project be held off, the Environment Appraisal Committee said the data provided by state-run monopoly nuclear power producers, NPCIL, were from 2004 and hence dated.

“Due to various environmental problems including the adverse impact on the marine life, the present proposal is not acceptable,” the panel said in its report to the ministry.

Opposition to nuclear power has grown in India after the disaster in Japan, and protests against the proposed nuclear plant site in Jaitapur in Maharashtra have turned violent in recent weeks, leaving at least one person dead in police firing and many injured. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said India’s atomic energy programme is on track but regulators would review safety systems to ensure that plants could withstand similar natural disasters.