Govt. to make Jaitapur plant as most-glorious atomic energy establishment: Dr Jitendra Singh

The Government is gathering all resources to make the 9,900-MW Jaitapur nuclear power plant in Maharashtra as one of the most glorious atomic energy establishments, union minister of state, Dr Jitendra Singh said at an ASSOCHAM event.

There are a lot of misgivings and we are looking at that plant very ambitiously, the entire atomic energy department is focussed on that, we are trying to gather all the resources to make it one of the most glorious atomic energy establishments, but again these misgivings have come up, said Dr Singh while inaugurating the 6th National Conference on Nuclear Energy organised by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

There are a lot of non-malignant advantages of atomic energy - it is environment friendly, climate friendly and these things are evidently very clear and if we are not able to convince our people and a plant like that in Jaitapur is still suffering from certain hiccups perhaps again the fault lies with us, said Dr Singh.

We have failed or we have not been able to propagate the facts as vigorously and aggressively as we ought to have done, he added.

Hazards of nuclear energy are not actually of the magnitude to which they are being projected and for that we need to have more number of awareness programmes with facts and figures because we have stuck up with something like Jaitapur plant, further said Dr Singh.

We need to tell the world and the people here that we have conducted a number of studies which have proved abundantly that there is no extra risk or hazard with having an atomic energy establishment in your vicinity, said the union minister.

He also said that a number of studies have been conducted on the workers/scientists working in the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and their periodic investigations have revealed that they had blood cells as fine as anybody else's.

We need not get alarmist and put everything on the platter of atomic energy and thereby inadvertently deprive ourselves of the enormous benefits that we are going to get out of it, said Dr Singh.

Talking about France's contribution to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious 'Make in India,' mission, the union minister said, The kind of understanding that has been arrived between AREVA and L&T who would enable us to come out with the most ambitious, totally indigenously developed reactor would be a befitting tribute to the Make in India initiative and dream.

In his address at the ASSOCHAM conference, Dr R.K. Sinha, chairman of Atomic Energy Commission and secretary, Department of Atomic Energy said that it is fundamental to address myths like - nuclear power is too dangerous as any accident can kill thousands of people and nuclear radiation causes cancer.

We need to convince the population at large before we are able to go any further, said Dr Sinha.

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