Nation-wide movement against India’s nuclear power programme
The writ petition mentions, “How under the pressure of foreign countries and the multi-billion dollar nuclear industry, the government has been pushing forward an expensive, unviable and dangerous nuclear power programme without proper safety assessment and without a thorough comparative cost-benefit analysis vis-a-vis other sources of energy, especially renewable sources.”
Country-wide protests against nuclear plants have escalated following the Fukushima disaster in Japan.
Humongous nuclear costs at the expense of exchequer
Activists nationwide unite to battle UPA’s nuclear dreams, Rediff, October 14, 2011, Sheela Bhatt in New Delhi Activists, experts and scientists across the country have come together to challenge Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s dream project to double the nuclear energy-based power generation in the country, A writ petition filed by eminent lawyer Prashant Bhushan under Article 32 seeks appropriate writ for declaring Nuclear Liability Act, 2010, unconstitutional and to call for safety re-assessment and cost-benefit analysis of all nuclear facilities in India. The petitioners want the overhaul of the ‘dysfunctional’ regulatory system.
The petitioners comprise of distinguished personalities or organisations who have first time come together to challenge one of the biggest policy decisions of the United Progressive Alliance government.
The petitioners include Common Cause, a non-government organisation, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (one of the petitioners against the 2G scam), Dr E A S Sarma, former power secretary, T S R Subramanian, former cabinet secretary, Professor T Shivaji Rao, ex-member of Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board, N Gopalaswami, former chief election commissioner, K R Venugopal, former secretary in Prime Minister’s Office, Dr P M Bhargava, former member, National Knowledge Commission and founder, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Admiral Laxminarayan Ramdas, former chief of naval staff, Surjit Das, former chief secretary, Uttarakhand, Dr P Vishnu Kamath, professor, department of chemistry, Central College of Bangalore University, K Babu Rao, senior scientist (retired) Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Prof N Venugopal Rao, former head, department of entomology, Agricultural University, Hyderabad, Dr N Bhaskara Rao, founder, Centre for Media Studies and S K Gouse Basha of the Jana Vignana Vedika……
The writ petition mentions, “How under the pressure of foreign countries and the multi-billion dollar nuclear industry, the government has been pushing forward an expensive, unviable and dangerous nuclear power programme without proper safety assessment and without a thorough comparative cost-benefit analysis vis-a-vis other sources of energy, especially renewable sources.”
It’s alleged that most of the nuclear reactor and equipment imports for which orders are being made are of extremely dubious quality and safety standards.
This petition uses the proposed Jaitapur nuclear power plant (considered to be the world’s largest) in Maharashtra as a case study to highlight the ‘mindless decision-making’ in recent times. ..
Country-wide protests against nuclear plants have escalated following the Fukushima disaster in Japan.
The petition also mentions that in Japan, the cost of repairs and search for new sources of electricity have been estimated to be more than a whopping $25 billion (about Rs 122,500 crore)….
in India, in the aftermath of Fukushima disaster Secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy (Srikumar Bannerji) who is the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, stated that Indian nuclear plans are “one hundred percent safe.” Such a statement without being based on facts or on assessment is intended to mislead the people in this county.”
The petition elaborates in depth the costs and risks of nuclear power. It lists out more than 15 risks attached to nuclear power plants…..
Dr Anil Kakodkar, former chairperson of the Atomic Energy Commission, who retired two years ago, candidly explained why the government is importing nuclear reactors and not using indigenous technologies.
In an article published in prominent Marathi newspaper Sakaal on January 5, Kakodkar wrote, “We have to keep in mind the commercial interests of foreign countries and of the companies there… America, Russia and France were the countries that we made mediators in these efforts to lift sanctions, and hence, for the nurturing of their business interests, we made deals with them for nuclear projects.”
The petitioners have alleged that the government, under pressure from multi-billion dollar nuclear energy lobby within India and abroad, has decided to press full-steam ahead to promote nuclear energy in the country.
Its plans have received a further boost with the completion of the US-India nuclear cooperation agreement because of which many contracts have been signed between India and foreign nuclear supplier companies.
These countries have also succeeded in getting the government to pass a law that limits liability of nuclear operators and suppliers (manufacturers) making a mockery of the ‘absolute liability’ principle and ‘polluter pays’ principle laid down by the Supreme Court while interpreting Article 21 of the Constitution.
In effect, this law provides a huge subsidy to the reactor manufacturers as it exempts them from the likely burden of an accident liability, and also provides a huge disincentive to them to invest in safety technologies that are usually expensive…….
The nuclear liability act, ‘channels all the liability to the nuclear operator (which presently is the government itself) and the victims are not allowed any recourse to sue the companies that supply nuclear reactors and other material. The act under Section 6 also limits the liability of the operator to Rs 1,500 crore, which is quite low, and states that the remaining damage may be made good by the government at the cost of exchequer. The act also excludes the liability of the operators in certain circumstances.”
The petitioners grouse is that the act was not passed because of any pressure from the citizens, any mass demonstration for the need of a liability law or for any felt need to strength the nuclear safety regime. Countries with which India has signed nuclear deals, like United States, France and Russia have pressurised our government to purchase expensive nuclear reactors from suppliers based in their countries.
The process of drafting of the bill was initiated by Indian corporate lobbyist organisation Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
The Liability Bill was clearly drafted under pressure from and under the influence of the nuclear industry, says the petition…..
Humongous nuclear costs at the expense of exchequer There are many elements of cost of nuclear power that are difficult to quantify. For example, the long-term cost of waste processing and management cannot be quantified in the absence of readily available technologies.
The cost of decommissioning is equally not measurable in the absence of actual experience of fool-proof decommissioning of any plant in the world. Apart from the above costs, the cost of reprocessing of fuel, waste storage, fuel costs and the cost of providing security make nuclear energy prohibitively priced.
‘The new expensive reactors that the government wishes to import by means of multi-billion dollar deals with foreign suppliers like Areva at the cost of the national exchequer would mean a cost over Rs 20 crore per MW.’
The government plans to order imports of nuclear plants and material of billions of dollars from select foreign companies through private negotiations, without proper technical and safety evaluation and without any competitive bidding/auction, are arbitra
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