Chennai: Ahead of the fourth round of talks on Tuesday to end the impasse over the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP), a member of the central expert group today vouched for its safety and said the plant would meet the power shortage of Tamil Nadu to a “large extent.”
“I don’t know what is the total requirement of Tamil Nadu … whatever has been promised by the central government, I think, at the moment, it stands at some 750 MW out of the first plant. And certainly to a large extent, the power shortage in Tamil Nadu will be addressed by Koodankulam,” K Balu, a member of the central expert group that would hold talks with the state panel, comprising protesters, said.
His observation comes against the backdrop of former President APJ Abdul Kalam’s recent suggestion to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the Centre may consider allotment of full 1,000 MW generation from KNPP unit-1 to Tamil Nadu to meet its present power crisis.
Noting that the state government has been co-operating with the Centre in allaying the fears of the locals over the safety concerns, he said, “…there will be no fear of any livelihood being lost or they being evacuated from land or homes. Such fears are totally unfounded. They have to listen to the assurances.
“On a personal level, I can assure them, as far as the safety is concerned, they need not worry.
This has been taken care of very well by the design of the plant and the way it will be operated,” Balu, a former Director of Nuclear Recycle Group in Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, told reporters here.
Replying to a question on the maintenance of the plant, Balu said all equipment need to be maintained to ensure satisfactory and long performance. “In so far as Koodankulam is concerned, whatever…that is essentially required, that is being attended to.
But this needs to improve and more and more people should be allowed to go to work there. So that maintenance of equipment can be done in a more sustained manner,” he said.
Asked whether the 15-member central expert group will meet the expert panel set up by the protesters, as demanded by them, he said, “It is the government which decides that the expert group of the central government will meet the Tamil Nadu representatives on a particular day. So they have decided that there will be a meeting on January 31.”
Balu hoped that the meeting would bring about a resolution to the issue.
“But to say that with a sense of finality, it is difficult at this point of time, because we have been answering all their questions and in our minds we have addressed all issues raised by them already, as far as the expert group is concerned. And if they have more questions, we will be happy to answer them,” he added. (PTI)
The previous three rounds of talks between the panels held on November 7, 18 and December 15 last year failed to make any headway towards commissioning of the first unit at the KNPP located in Tirunelveli district as local people protesting against the project were not satisfied with the answers given by the expert group to their queries.