Kudankulam: scientists urges safety

The government has instructed the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) to sift through safety concerns at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) with a “fine-toothed comb”, without being pressured by its commissioning deadline. The move comes despite the recent promise made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the plant kick-starting soon.

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India has said that the KNPP will now start functioning only in June. The power plant’s physical progress was 99.6% complete, it added. The government had also recently invited the operational safety review team of the International Atomic Energy Agency to do an independent safety assessment of other Indian reactors.

Last week, the Supreme Court cleared the Kudankulam plant, paving the way for its early commissioning. Originally, the plant was scheduled to start in 2007. But recently, a whole new set of safety checks were conducted by the AERB after four valves from a Russian supplier were found to be “deficient”. Stung by a series of popular protests, the government is keen that no stone is left unturned over safety issues, even if this means the Russians are less than pleased, sources said. Some of the supplies from Russian companies have been found to be below par, they added.

Now, a group of 60 leading scientists, all of whom serve in state-run institutions, shot off a letter to the PM and the chief ministers of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, asking for more stringent safety checks. The missive was allegedly sparked off by the arrest by Russian authorities of Sergei Shutov, the procurement director of Zio-Podolsk. Shutov was arrested on “corruption charges for having sourced cheaper sub-standard steel for manufacturing components that were used in Russian nuclear installations in Bulgaria, Iran, China and India”. The arrest led to several complaints of substandard components and follow-up investigations in both Bulgaria and China.

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