Scrap Jaitapur nuclear project, leaders write to PM

"We are deeply concerned that both the Central Government and the Government of Maharashtra do not seem to have paid due attention to the serious objections regarding the safety of the proposed Areva reactors and its costs raised by experts, parliamentarians, public figures and the local people," the letter said.

The letter, written on behalf of the 'National Committee in solidarity with Jaitapur struggle', was signed by Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury of CPI(M), A B Bardhan and D Raja of CPI, LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, Nama Nageswara Rao (TDP) and K Danish Ali (JD-S).

It claimed that the project has not been subjected to an independent rigorous scientific techno-economic scrutiny and safety audit in public domain.

"It is being pushed against the will of the local people. The 'conditional' environmental clearance granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forest in November 2010 is also based on an unscientific and deeply flawed Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Report," the letter said.

The leaders said that the environmental clearance had not considered seriously the main environmental issues and expressed doubts over the suitability if the agency that had been chosen to prepare the Environment assessment.

"NEERI, the agency engaged to prepare the EIA, is admittedly not competent on matters concerning nuclear hazards," the leaders said in the letter dated August 17.

"The Environmental Clearance is subject to clearance by the AERB on matters concerning nuclear energy. We understand that AERB is yet to consider and approve the design of the Areva Reactor," the letter said.

The leaders have also claimed that recent statutory disclosures showed that the company building the Jaitapur Nuclear reactors was also in deep financial trouble.

"The Areva group debt stood at Euro 2.77 billion ($3.75 billion) in June 2011. Areva's operating loss for the year 2011 is more than 2 billion Euros," the leaders claimed.