Koodankulam: Nuclear Power Corrupts Absolutely ! by DiaNuke.org

Why is it that instead of addressing the apprehensions of the protesters and putting in place all necessary safeguards to dispel their anxieties, the government has instead unleashed police terror?

Brig. V Mahalingam

Brigadier (retd) V Mahalingam, has held varying command and staff appointments in his 35 years of Army service. He specializes in security related matters and is a leadership trainer. His areas of interest include national security, defence and security forces, governance, and politics.

Article courtesy:Outlook

In a democracy, protest is a legitimate tool in the hands of the people to voice their concern and exert pressure on the government to effect a course correction when the path chosen by it is assessed as “against public interest”. The effect of a nuclear accident in India, a densely populated country could be disastrous with far reaching long term implications to the environment and the people. The Three Mile Island (1979), Chernobyl (1986) and Fukushima (2011) incidents have brought to the fore the risks involved in the business of nuclear power generation.

The Fukushima disaster has altered and enhanced mani fold the risk perception of a nuclear plant in the minds of the people. Like elsewhere in the world, people in rural India, around whose habitation nuclear power plants are proposed to be built, are apprehensive that the dangers of a nuclear disaster may far outweigh the gains of nuclear power generation. It is not without a reason that Germany, a technologically advanced country where nuclear energy accounts for 26 % of its power generation, has decided to do away with all its nuclear plants by 2022 based on a referendum. In US, notwithstanding the proposals for nearly 150 coal based power plants being dumped due to opposition from environmentalists, no nuclear power plant has been approved in the past three decades. Australia and New Zealand have said a firm no to nuclear power. This is despite Australia having large reserves of nuclear fissile material. Japan, which witnessed the Fukushima disaster and its aftermath live, is reported to have taken a decision to reduce its dependence on nuclear power in the short term and abandon it altogether in the long term.