Dr. Vivek Monteiro is a prominent social and labor-rights activist. He holds a doctorate in engineering from Harvard University and is a leading voice in the struggle against Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project.
Dr. Anil Kakodkar, you are a scientist. I am just a simple resident of Madban. Since you are a scientist, I hope you will be ready to answer my questions about the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project. Let me ask them one by one. First, I want to ask you some questions about nuclear radiation.
1: NPCIL has recently published a booklet saying that nuclear radiation is a friend of man. Is it not true that nuclear radiation is dangerous for us, and more radiation is more dangerous? Is it not true that nuclear radiation causes cancer and that more radiation causes more number of cancers? Is it not true that nuclear radiation can cause cancer of the blood, liver, breast, pancreas, brain etc. Is it not true that nuclear radiation is especially dangerous for children in their mother’s womb? If this is true will you ask NPCIL to withdraw their booklet, and make corrections to it?
2: Is it not true that it is this nuclear radiation which makes nuclear accidents far worse than any other kind of accidents? The Bhopal accident killed thousands of people. But today people still live in Bhopal nearby the Union Carbide plant. But after the Chernobyl accident in 1986, those who had to leave the city of Pripyat can never go back. A whole city is empty. I listened to your lecture in January this year. You said in your lecture that only a few people were killed in the Chernobyl accident. The Konkan Bachao Samiti experts told us that even today in about 4000 square kilometers around Chernobyl nobody can live due to nuclear radiation. Is that true Dr. Kakodkar? If it is why do you hide such facts in your lectures? 4000 square kilometers is half of Ratnagiri district. If Ratnagiri district has to be evacuated where will we go to live?
3: Is it true that around Chernobyl, even after 25 years, no agriculture is allowed in about 1 Lakh 25 thousand square kilometers? If this is true, why didn’t you mention this in your lecture? One and a quarter Lakh square kilometers is more than the total combined area of Kolhapur, Satara, Sangli, Pune, Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Raigad and Thane districts. Dr. Kakodkar, if agriculture and fruit growing are destroyed in all these districts for hundreds of years, because of an accident like Chernobyl at Madban, what will happen to our beloved Maharashtra?
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