( 23 September, 2012, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) A tale
for the future begins. Two young boys living near a town in a tropical, warm
region start a miniature model for an energy park in their garden. The times were
such that there was much hue and cry about energy crisis. There were many hours
of power cut which disrupted a life style so connected to electricity. Being in
the green garden is what triggered off this idea in their young minds. Their
lives had got connected to the people struggling for justice in the context of
the upcoming Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant. In a creative surge, the younger
of the two boys made a miniature of the 2 domes of the Nuclear Power Plant and
covered it with aluminium paper resembling solar panels. There were some wind
mills and an attempt was being made to create a micro-hydel unit too. The
slogans of the powerful women leading the struggle “How many ways are there for
electricity generation – wind, tidal and solar? Why not try one of them? Why go
in for Nuclear Power? We do not want this Nuclear power plant” resounded in the
ears as the boys refined their model.
“Why not turn this whole Power Plant into a museum for
science and technology with focus on energy? Why insist on Nuclear energy which
is not clean or safe?”, asked the young fishermen who had assembled at the tea
shop in Idintakarai village one evening.
In the context of the present scenario when the media is
being flooded with the news of nuclear fuel loading, most of us would assume
that this tale has ended. But the end is not the usual one “They lived happily
ever after ”. Can we say this about nuclear power generation? But the finality
and inevitability of the statement about fuel loading need to be re-examined. As
preparations were getting underway for the first reactor to commence
functioning many of us go by the general news that 14,000 crore rupees have
been invested which will all go waste if the KKNPP is not commissioned now. But
there is a long way to go before the Plant becomes fully operational.
As Anuj Wankhede has written in June 2012 (A Viable
Alternative at Koodankulam, www.dianuke.org ) :-
“The KKNPP is not the first instance of nuclear projects
stalled because of resentment from the local populace. The US has witnessed
this in the famous Shoreham Reactor which ran for ONE DAY before closing down.
The William H.Zimmer Nuclear Power Plant in Ohio was converted to fuel
combustion when it was 97 % completed. The Midland Cogeneration Facility at
Michigan and at Seabrooke , New Hampshire which were abandoned at very advanced
stages of 85% completion for many reasons created a breakthrough in the history
of nuclear power plant shutdowns.
Philippines , a country similar to India stopped the Bataan
Nuclear power Station based on the disaster in Chernobyl and stiff opposition
from citizens. Over $ 2 billion had been spent on the project. This was
converted to a tourist attraction to recover the cost of $40 million needed to
maintain the idled reactor and the complex.
The land acquired to create the sterile or exclusion zone
about 3 kms around the park can be converted into a solar farm using
concentrated solar cells and generating power. The research needed to establish
this will cost less than the investment that is now needed for KKNPP to be
fully operational.”
The details of the Shoreham plant where the Long Island
Lighting Company and the Federal agencies agreed to the public demands and
turned it into a natural gas- fired power station shows that nothing is impossible
or too late ( www.dianuke.org , Sept 19,2011, P.K.Sundaram).
The process by which Austria shut down its Zwentendorf
Nuclear Power Plant in 1978 along with 5 others respecting public opinion
gained the country a position in the discussion on Energy Policy. This has been
made into a museum where nuclear energy and science students can visit and
study how a Nuclear Power Plant looks like. It seems ironical that Mumbai-based
PM Dimensions has leased it out to train Nuclear Engineering students. 50 students
from India visited this place in October 2011. It is ironical that Austrian
President and our previous President Smt. Pratibha Patil had a discussion on
how to train students from India there.
How will this tale end? Maybe with a ‘They lived happily ever
after in which the 2 boys will be the real architects of an Energy Park, when
people of Idintakarai and the other villages will go back to their homes and
livelihood, where life will resume its usual rhythm and harmony. Or will it be
that they will be forgotten as the young boy said - “ To annihilate the poor
and not poverty is what development is all about”
As the day passed news about boats blocking the Tuticorin
harbour comes in. Along with this is the news about fuel loading underway. What
does 10% fuel loading mean? Melrit and Inita ask with trembling voice, “ We
hear this news. Is it true? What next?”
Nothing is impossible in this country. If the State
Government and the Central Government can stop this death game that is just for
their power maintenance this madness can be reversed. When it comes to averting
a disaster like having a death tomb at your door step it is never too late.
All of us who believe in peace and justice, true
“Jananayakam” ( Democracy) and right to life and health should be at the door
step of KKNPP demanding that this be stopped for ever. As the youngsters in
Idintakarai said as we walked in under the crescent moon and stars on 19 th
night accompanying one of the Fact Finding Team members,
“Give us 8 months. We will return the 14,000 crore rupees
that you claim to have spend on the plant. Give us our land and seas. We want
nothing more. Just the freedom to live here”.
Anitha.S after being in Idintakarai as the much dreaded news
about uranium fuel loading started filtering in.
Article originally published by Counter Currents
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