DEATH DANCE OVER 


KUDANKULAM!

By SUNNY THOMAS

Before Abdul Kalam set foot on Kudankulam, it had two notorious visitors – the ghost of Chernobyl and the paranoia of Fukushima – which set the stage for Tamil Nadu politicians to play the Shylock to demand its pound of flesh. Indian democracy is run by agitators and scamsters and, of course, by the government fire-fighting to save the situation, which is called governance. 

Governments across the world are notorious for hiding facts and figures from the public, and any assurance on safety must be taken with a pinch of salt. If Kalam’s assurance has not cut much ice with the villagers, his Rs 200-crore economic package may sell. See how Mamata Banerjee’s stand on petrol price hike softened when Pranab Mukherjee’s diplomacy was at work. Politicians in Tamil Nadu as in West Bengal see the wisdom of goodies, and finally the farmers may allow the Centre to re-start work on the first unit of Kudankulam power plant, suspended from October 2011. 

Which villager is not flattered by 4-lane roads leading to the destinations he has to frequently travel, like Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari and Maduri; and employment for 10,000 of their kin, and self-employment loans? Not just this, multi-storeyed housing projects with sports complex for the coastal people, mechanized boats, fish processing and cold storage facilities for fishermen; and one million litres of drinking water a day for all after desalinating seawater. If things go smoothly, which means the money moving on the right lane (not into the pockets of middlemen), Kudankulam could be the envy of the rest of India, or at least villages of its kind.

As for the safety of nuclear plants, there is no country on the Atomic Energy Map of the world that did not have a tryst with destiny – minor or major disasters that press the panic button. A catalogue of nuclear plant disasters (search Googles) would turn nuclear optimist into nuclear sceptist. And no decade passes since Hiroshima and Nagasaki without a nuclear plant incident. The US had at least two to account for, France and China their own mistakes, Japan, and Soviet Union the worst ones; but UK’ s was the most sensational one because it happened near a dairy farm, forcing a ban on dairy products! 

The good news is Tamil Nadu, with or without Kudankulam, has the potential to be the power house of south India. The state has immense potential to harness solar power because it receives sufficient solar radiation for 10 months a year. And a 100 mw solar power station could be set up in two years whereas a conventional thermal or nuclear power station takes six years for completion. As for cost advantage, entrepreneurs are coming forward offering to set up solar power stations at Rs10 crore per mw, says GM Pillai, Director-General of the World Institute of Sustainable Energy (WISE), who is an IAS officer on deputation to WISE.

The projected cost of the two reactors of 1,000 mw each, being set up at Kudankulam, is Rs13165 crore (US$ 3 billion). But there are hidden costs like the cost of operation, maintenance and safety, which if taken into account will double the estimate. Moreover, the government is heavily subsidizing the nuclear power stations, and the cost of heavy water for reactors is Rs 800 per kg whereas its costs Rs 30,000 on international market !

The fear of Kudankulam turning into a dinosaur is slightly misplaced. Listen to M Pushparayan, who spearheads the agitation: The matter should be discussed with the chief minister… If she is satisfied and advises us on that point we have no problem on allowing work to restart at the first unit.  It is amply clear who plays the deity and who plays Hanuman! Is the Roman Catholic Bishop A Jude Paulraj among the agitators? Well , His Holiness represents the poor fishermen of the coastal region, and those who understand politics know the value of demographic engineering.     

To give a quick recap, the signing of an agreement on November 20, 1988 by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signalled the beginning of this project., which suffered benign neglect for 10 years because of political upheaval and break-up of the Soviet Union. Also, the US opposed it on the grounds of not meeting the 1992 terms of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). In 2008, negotiation for four additional reactors at the site began. The capacity, though not declared, is expected to be 1000 mw each. The new reactors would bring the total capacity of the power plant to 9200 mw. Bad luck plagued the project all along and in June 2011, chief designer Sergei Ryzhov was killed in an air mishap (The superstitious could add Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination and Gorbachev’s ouster in a coupe to the list!).

The first unit is expected to go on stream in December (2011).