5.1.12

The Kudankulam N-plant

The Department of Atomic Energy has incurred a huge financial loss due to the delay in commissioning of the Kudankulam nuclear power project. Apart from technical steps which have to be undertaken again due to stoppage of the work following protests by anti-nuclear activists at Idinthakkarai near Kudankulam, the department has incurred a huge loss, including interest on an investment of Rs 13,000 crore over the years, said DAE chairman Srikumar Banerjee, speaking to reporters at the 99th Science Congress in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. Head of the DAE’s public awareness division S K Malhotra said, “Though the Fukushima disaster happened in March, hardly any protest was seen in the villages and the surrounding places, but a loud noise created by steam being ejected during the hot run changed the scenario and villagers panicked. But we almost convinced the villagers that the noise would be there only during trial run and once the project is commissioned, there will not be any noise at all. But slowly politics took over and the protesters gained an upper hand.” Since October, when the protests started, the plant has been incurring a loss of around Rs 4 crore a day because of non-operation of the plant, which has been constructed at a cost of Rs 14,000 crore. “Unit 1 of the plant would have become operational from December 2011 in the normal course and the plant would have started generating income by selling electricity. The plant is paying a huge amount towards interest and the total costs, including maintenance, comes to around Rs 4 crore a day,” said Malhotra. Banerjee said Kudankulam would eventually become another Tarapur in Maharashtra, which has emerged as an industrial hub after the country’s first nuclear reactor was set up in the fishing village. “Over a period of 40 years, Tarapur has emerged as an industrial hub and nuclear power has acted as a catalyst for the development of the entire area,” Banerjee said.

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