Kalam on Kudankulam

The much anticipated visit of former President Abdul Kalam to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) failed to break the ice between the government and antinuclear activists. Kalam drove to the site in Kudankulam, a village in southern Tamil Nadu, on Sunday morning and spent nearly three hours there but didn’t meet the protesters. Later, he addressed the media and said the project had adequate safeguards and there was no threat of any kind from it to public. “There is a three-tier safety in the Kudankulam plant. It has adequate measures to tackle any situation including loss of power supply to the plant or exhaustion of the coolant or disposal of waste. Kudankulam is the first nuclear plant in India to have these features,’’ said Kalam. He added that the plant was immunized from tsunami as it was built on an elevation. Kalam, a known advocate of nuclear energy, said the plant was designed in a way that there would be no radiation leak in case of any emergency. “There will not be any radiation leak. Nuclear radiation will be contained within the reactor itself,’’ he said. Former President A P J Kalam said on Sunday that nuclear waste would not be dumped into the sea as claimed by activists. “The waste that needs to be disposed would only be 25% and an underground facility would be generated to dispose it,’’ he said. Villagers in and around Kudankulam have been protesting against the project for several weeks. Work at the 2000mw project built with Russian aid and expected to be commissioned soon has stopped and a large number of wage labourers at the site have returned to their homes. Kalam, who framed scientific policies for the Central government before becoming the President, had announced a few weeks ago that he would visit Kudankulam and study the safety features of the project. It was expected in government quarters that a clean chit from the former President, who is from neighbouring Tirunelveli district and held in high esteem by the public at large in the region, would help turn around public opinion. But, former president Abdul Kalam did not meet the protesters and clarified that he was not a representative of the Centre. The protesters were hostile to his visit as they perceived to him to be a pro-nuclear scientist.