Ahead of Japanese PM's visit, 13 Jaitapur villages declare opposition to nuclear power plant in Maharashtra

Ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s India visit in December second week, 13 villages in Jaitapur, Maharashtra, have declared their opposition to the proposed nuclear project by passing a unanimous resolution. While the plant is to be built by the French company Areva, the Japanese Mitsubishi is likely to supply crucial components for the nuclear reactor of the plant.
For the nuclear project to take off, an India-Japan nuclear agreement -- expected to be signed during the upcoming visit of Abe to New Delhi -- is considered an essential step. next month. To protest the move, the villagers have announced a demonstration on the occasion on December 12.
The villagers’ resolution says, “Nuclear energy is destructive and immoral energy. The accidents of Chernobyl and Fukushima have shown the destructive potential of nuclear energy. Large number of children in and around 500km radius of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was affected by thyroid cancer.”
Pointing out that even after 29 years of the Chernobyl accident, 2,800 sq km area around the plant remains without any human existence, the statement said, “This area is equal to half of Sindhdurga near Jaitapur”, adding, the after-effects of Fukushima accident will continue to be felt for “the next 100 years.”
The resolution said, “No operating nuclear power plant in India is free from accident”, adding, “The radiation emerging out of the nuclear power plant affects has affected surrounding areas”, apart from the biodiversity of the area, whether it is :Tarapur, Rawatbhata or Kalpakkam.”
The resolution stated, “The nuclear waste of these plants is very hazardous to human life as it has radiation and the management of nuclear waste is humanely impossible for the next thousand years. Everyday 5,200 crore litres of water is needed from the sea for the cooling process of the power plant and this water will be put back into the sea after an increase of 7°C above normal.”
Asserting that “because of this biodiversity of the sea will be in crisis”, the resolution said, “According to government reports of Chakravarti Commission, 1972, and the Chaturvedi place-fixing commission 2002, an earthquake fault line runs below the Madwan plateau, of which the proposed plant site is part.”
“To install a nuclear plant on this place will be destructive and an invitation for a great disaster”, it said, adding, “Under the Right to Information (RTI) it has been revealed in the past 20 years this area has experienced more than 90 strokes of earthquake.”
As for the French company Areva, which is going to install a nuclear plant in Jaitapur, the resolution said, the design used by this company has not been “used anywhere else in the world”, adding, “The plants under construction in France and Finland by Areva have been found to be deeply faulty.”
Referring to reports which said Areva “has almost gone bankrupt”, the resolution said, “Allowing such a company to build a plant in the Western Ghats is knelling the death bell.”, adding, “Huge capital expenditure and expensive electricity are the two more reasons why we are against the Jaitapur nuclear power plant.”

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