Former Power Minister Opposes Bengal Nuke Project

The former Bengal minister for power, Sankar Kumar Sen has spoken to R Chidambaram, chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, advising him against any attempt to set up a nuclear power station in West Bengal.

Speaking to Business Standard, a very senior functionary of the CPM said that it was unfortunate that Sen has been trying to scuttle the nuclear power project for the state.

The former power minister, he alleged, had earlier flouted the Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu's wishes to write a letter to the Nuclear Power Commission proposing a nuclear power plant in the state.

Sen, however, refused to discuss the issue with Business Standard. However, he is one of the signatories in an appeal by a group of intellectuals and scientists of the state against the nuclear power plant proposal.

 

The list of signatories also include a former CPM MP, Malini Bhattacharya.

That there is a strong voice of dissent even within the ruling CPM is evident from the decision to publish a letter by a senior party member and a former chairman, West Bengal State Electricity Board (WBSEB), Deb Kumar Bose in the party's Bengali daily `Ganashakti' strongly criticising the move.

The party's long term MP and a leader in the South 24 Parganas district, Radhika Pramain told Business Standard that even the Basu was earlier opposed to the idea.

However, it was his 45-minute session with Basu in the presence of the then power minister Sankar Sen and the finance minister, Asim Dasgupta that changed Basu's views. The Chief Minister immediately asked Sen to take up the issue with the Centre.

However, no letter was written by Sen. Things started moving only after Basu himself wrote a letter recently to Prime Minister, Vajpayee.

Malini Bhattacharya told Business Standard that she will keep up her opposition within the party, but had no immediate plans to participate in any anti-nuclear power project agitation.

She said that she was opposed to the idea for four reasons: 1) Bengal has enough sources of non-nuclear power; 2) Rest of the world was reducing its dependence in nuclear power and abandoning new projects; 3) It was wrong to say that nuclear power was cheaper considering the high capital cost, maintenance and safety expenditure; and, 4) Scientists are still clueless how to dispose the plutonium waste.

These questions must be answered before a final decision is taken to set up a nuclear power station in the state, said Bhattacharya.

D K Bose wrote in the Ganashakti that coal stocks in India will last over a century. Nuclear power is much more expensive than thermal power.

It is wrong to force consumers in Bengal buy expensive nuclear power.

The radiation dangers of nuclear power plant waste last for over 1,000 years, and, no satisfactory solution to waste disposal has been found.

An accident in a nuclear power plant will require immediate evacuation of the population in a radius of five to 50 kilometers. This is often impossible.

Chernobyl and Three Miles Island accidents prompted various countries cut down use of nuclear power.

Indian scientists advocating nuclear power plants are also those keen to manufacture atom bombs. They have an additional interest to legally procure plutonium from the power plants.

"The line between creation and destruction in nuclear power is very thin", wrote Bose.