Amidst ongoing agitations by villagers and the judicial battle, the Atomic Energy Commission chairman R K Sinha on Tuesday hoped that the first unit of 1,000 MW of Kudankulam nuclear project in Tamil Nadu would be operational by the end of this calender year.
He informed that the fuel loading, which was recently deferred after India's nuclear regulator Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) directed to further upgrade safety applications at the plant, was currently going on and it would be complete in one and half months.
"However, it will not be possible to give you exact time when the first unit is commissioned especially in view of further directives from AERB and also because of case pending in the Supreme Court for judgement. But I am quite optimistic that the first unit be operational by end of calender year. The ongoing protests have not at all stopped the completion of second unit of 1,000 MW which I expect to be operational by first part of next year, " he added.
Sinha, who was speaking at the sidelines of the India Nuclear Energy Summit 2012, observed that at the Kudankulam there are symptoms where local sentiments are exploited by anti nuclear bodies. "Excepting one or two villages during our visit in April near the Kudankulam plant site other villagers welcomed with lot of garlands and they insisted us for an early commissioning of the project. In my view the Kudankulam project will be able to partially address the issue of power blackouts in Tamil Nadu," he opined.
However, Sinha admitted that the public acceptance for nuclear energy in general has been a major challenge to be addressed by Atomic Energy Commission, Department of Atomic Energy and Nuclear Power Corporation. "We were not prepared to address this challenge of this magnitude. We will have to step up efforts to awake the public at large on effects of radiation on health. Study carried out in Kerala by monitoring 4 lakh persons and 1,40,000 new born children revealed that they were found neutral to radiation levels."
Similarly, concerns about depleting fish production following the discharge of hot water into the sea from the proposed 9,900 MW Jaitapur nuclear project in Maharashtra have been successfully addressed. "Infact, similar study carried out at the other coastal nuclear power projects revealed that the fish production has increased substantially," he added.
He made a strong case for updating knowledge base and bring together scientific insight to ally fear about nuclear safety. "This is a major challenge but it cane be tackled internationally through standards, code and guides of radiation protection," he noted. Sinha, who recently led the Indian delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency's governor body meeting, informed that India has been well accepted internationally for its success in carrying out its three stage nuclear programme.
Ultimately, Singh observed that nuclear energy is key to achieve food, water, energy and health security in India and globally in general. Naratting India's recent achievements, AEC chairman said uranium augmentation has yielded 75% additional resources in last five year and its continuous exploration was underway in uranium mines in Andhra Pradesh.
Of the 20 reactors operational in the country, most of them have achieved one year of continuous operation. Tarapur unit I achieved a continuous operation of 590 days while Tarapur unit III completed 525 days of continuous operation. Besides, construction of four 700 MW pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) were under various stages of completion and they will start produce power by 2017. The plutonium based fast breeder reactor was also under construction in the country.
Moreover, Sinha said nuclear energy has been effectively used in medicines, production and supply of seeds which are applied in the Indian agriculture successfully to step up output. "We have developed our own membranes to address water contamination. Besides, desalination plant using sea water at the Kalpakam nuclear project is under operations," he noted.
