New Delhi: The Supreme Court is expected today to pronounce its verdict on a plea seeking halt to the commissioning of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant till the implementation of key additional safety measures suggested after an N-accident in Japan.
The petitioner, Chennai-based IT professional G Sunderrajan, wants the government to implement 11 of the 17 additional safety measures recommended for the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) by a task force set up by the government in the wake of Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan in 2011.
The apex court bench of Justice K S Radhakrishnan and Justice Dipak Misra’s verdict would come nearly two years from the day when residents of Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu launched protests against the project.
“The judgement will come on the 630th day of the people’s protest against the project,” M Pushparayan, one of the key figures in the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy spearheading the anti-KNPP stir, said in Chennai.
The Apex Court’s decision would come close to the admission by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board about four faulty valves in the first reactor of the project and also after the arrests of Russian officials over alleged corruption in sourcing sub-standard materials for the KNPP, said Pushparayan.
Sunderrajan said that he was not seeking the scrapping of the project. “I have requested the apex court to enhance the safety features of the KNPP by ordering NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd) to implement the 17 recommendations of the special task force formed after the accident in Fukushima,” said Sundarrajan.
“Changing of the government’s policy decision will have to be fought in the people’s court,” he said. He asked the court to ensure that the substandard equipments from the Russian company Zio-Podolsk were not used in the KNPP and a proper mock drill was conducted for the safety of the people living within the 25km radius of the power plant.
IANS
