AID-India Conference 99, Chennai
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Koodankulam Nuclear Reactor: Cause for Alarm 
S.P. Udayakumar

 
       I would like to thank Aravinda for encouraging me to come here.  I am a research fellow at the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota.  I also write for newspapers.  Following Dr. Parameswara Rao’s advice, to change the attitude of people towards our government, when the BJP government came to power, Mr. N Ram of Frontline and some professors in Delhi, and I formed a group called BJP government watch.  We have a website which you can look at www.bjpgovernmentwatch.org.
       I am a citizen from Nagercoil , Kanyakumari district.  Ever since the Koodankulam project was devised I have been panic stricken because I don’t believe in the pattern of modernization and development that our nation state is pursuing.
       In the 1980s my friends and I formed a Group for a Peaceful Indian Ocean.  We sought to educate the public opinion on the dangers of nuclear power plants and radioactive contamination.  However, the thoughtless persistence of the government, remarkable indifference of local lawmakers and public figures, and high degree of nuclear illiteracy among our people in that part of India have contributed to the consolidation of the projects, and we have obviously lost.
       We were told that this project would bring increased job opportunities, enhanced growth of the region, and improve power generation.  Anyone who comes from that region will know about the increased job opportunities, they are not for the masses that earn 30-50 rupees per day.  Enhanced growth –        Kanyakumari remains the same, and I think it will remain the same because the money will not be spend on the masses and so forth.  Now about power generation.  I have been talking in Delhi, talking to a lot of the elitest sections of the society.  Most people have been indifferent, some people have suggested to me covertly and overtly that nuclear power is not a bad idea and they are not concerned about it.
As we know some of these claims are misleading and quite inordinate.
       Since I am living in the US for the time being I cannot help comparing with what is going on in that country.  I hate to compare as we see that for every single thing India looks to the west, especially the US.  But for this point I think it is quite relevant.
       Commonwealth Edison is the largest private nuclear power company in the US.  They have closed 2 nuclear plants in Illinois because of economic reasons.  Another plant was shut down last year due to safety concerns.  Only 4 of the company’s 12 plants are now currently generating electricity.
Northeast Utilities is another company in Waterford CT.  That company has also suspended plans to reopen one of its facilities.  These and other companies are closing existing plants and refusing to open new plants for two reasons, one is cost and another is safety.  If these reasons affect one of the wealthiest countries, then what will be India’s position? 
       Besides industry problems there are considerations of storing the spent fuel and final decommissioning of the plant.  These are dangerous considerations when a small lapse can affect millions of lives.

Even if we suppose our plants are so effective that they overcome all these difficulties.
       What happens if a natural calamity or a human made calamity attacks the plants.  The world as we know is not devoid of natural threats.  A few years ago there was a mild tremor in the region, the area is also known for heavy monsoon rains, sea erosion.  Global warming could have an effect, the place sits very close to the coastal area, just 4 km from the Bay of Bengal coast.  I am reading from a Hindu clipping.  Earth tremors of a high magnitude have been recorded 64 times in South India since 1688. 
 Tremors have been experienced 36 times in this century including 8 in 60s, 6 in 70s and 4 in the 80s.
       Dr. Jaykumar, Vice Chancellor of Periyar university pointed out that India is the fastest moving land mass in the world.  Has moved from original to present position by several hundred km.  The land mass of India is moving northwards and the Indian Ocean is still spreading.  A small change in temperature due to global warming can wipe out whole of Maldives, coast of Bangladesh, and southern peninsula.
        There are more credible and immediate dangers such as inadvertent human errors and deliberate disasters.  Bhopal tragedy still haunts our national consciousness.
       Terrorism is a national reality especially in TN.  Several Sri Lankan guerilla groups operate in TN.
       Nuclear protestors in the US and UK have demonstrated that the high security systems are not so effective by gaining access to the innermost protected areas of these sites.
       I am not a nuclear expert.  I don’t know much about these reactors.  This project bothers me because I am from Kanyakumari and I want to spend my life there and raise my children there so that they can build their India.  Now what will happen in case of an accident in Koodankulam?  (draws map) 
       Those living west and north would flee north and try to run away from the danger.  Those directly south will be literally trapped inside a big nuclear contamination cage.  Caught between the rough and deep sea and the source of deadly contamination.  Fleeing west to Kerala will not help because the radiation will reach there, there is no natural barrier.  The peninsula has the dampest and most uniform climate of the whole subcontinent, open to westerly winds from the ocean and shielded by the western ghats.  It also prevents the desiccating winds of the Deccan plateau from coming in.  So these winds are stopped there.
2-3 million people will be cornered in the southern peninsula.  Depending on the climate at the time the fleeing people will be pursued and consumed by the humid and damp wind which will spread the contamination rapidly.
       If the Chernobyl contamination in the Ukraine could harm thousands of reindeer in Northern Sweden, one can easily imagine the fate of the people living in Southern Kerala also.
This nightmarish picture is the one which really haunts me.  Gabriele and NAPM as well as Sampurna Kranti Vidyalaya in Gujarat are all doing wonderful work.
       Aravinda and a couple of friends are coming this week so that we can all see what is going on and what we can do.  If any of you are interested you will be most welcome to Nagercoil.  We can meet there and go by bus to Koodankulam.  John Hallam and his wife Mishka who are experts in the VVER 1000MW, the kind of reactor that we are going to get from Russia are coming.
       I for one am really pessimistic about this nuclear hooplah going on in this country.
       Those who are really interested in building a more peaceful, nonviolent and more dignified India should read a book called India 2020 by Abdul Kalam.  It is a very cunning program which empowers the nuclear barons.  The Koodankulam project is not devoid of the military connections.
       The reactors will use slightly enriched uranium containing 4.2-4.3% of uranium 235.  The spent fuel will not be sent back to Russia.  That is an important part of the agreement.  So we have to deal with it.  I am not sure where Abdul Kalam plans to bury it, not in their backyard.
       To the question, Dr. Prasad, another nuclear baron, said, “It is too early to think about that.”  Now who is going to think about it.  Do the people have a say? When will they decide?  Will they publicize it?  In nuclear projects, there is no democracy.
       Even in the US there is no democracy in this area.  Take Israel, take US take any nuclear country there is no democracy in this field.  India will not be an exception  A few nuclear barons decide and shove it down the throats of the people.


 Gabriele:  It is very good if you people go there but you should know what you are letting yourself in for.  I am not so pessimistic as you are that nothing can prevent this.  It has been an extremely hot issue since the coastal march in 1989.  The local population of Koodankulam had said it wanted the reactor, because of employment, etc.  People in Kanyakumari resist, but even Kanyakumari people have cold feet.
       There was a shoot out in 1989 when we have the coastal march of the National Fishworkers Forum.  The final procession was disrupted by sending in a private bus.  Stone throwing, police firing.  People were very badly injured.  Since then the fishworkers movement was also setback.  It was very difficult to rehabilitate the families of the fishermen.
       But even if you go now I will not be surprised if you are also beaten up.  The local population is not keen on you.  There is a strong BJP locally.  We have sent such teams, who have also been beaten up.  They came back minus their cameras and eyeglasses.  They were also kidnapped.  So I am not frightening you I am just saying that anything can happen and it is good if you people know what you are in for.  We are working on the issue in NAPM.  We have had a workshop.  At the public level it is low key right now for these reasons which I am telling you.  We also had a one day seminar on this issue.  There is a lot of expert opinion to substantiate the things that Udaykumar is saying, and evidence of how un-economic it is.  Politically this is a sacred cow, you are touching a very sensitive issue.  But it is  very good if this is done.  It needs to be done.

Sailesh: For a normal mind it looks very logical that this project might be stopped.  But do you think the people there are so moronic to go ahead if there are all these problems?  Are we as ordinary people to judge something like this?

Mohan:  I want to make two comments.  I was here with a team of German experts who had been asked to come to one of our nuclear plants to see how safe it was.  So we had breakfast together and they said, we will see you in the evening we will be spending the day in the place.  But then I saw them at lunch and I said, what are you doing here already?
They came back and said, we won’t spend 5 minutes in that place.  All the safety devices have been disabled.  Not a single safety device is in place.  Russian plants are notorious, absolutely notorious around the entire world.

Sailesh:  There have not been any problems with Russian reactors so far.
Mohan:  You may have heard of Chernobyl.  That was the one we were allowed to see.  I am sure that there were many others which they made sure that we could not see.

Udaykumar:  Admiral Ramdas told me about the Kalpakkam project.  Yorkshire TV in Britain managed to take a camera into some of these reactors and took a one hour documentary which is available now.  And it tells the truth which is being hidden from us.  Another point I want to make is that a woman who ruled the country for almost 16 years was transported, when she got shot, in the backseat of an Ambassador car.  If that was the fate of one of the most powerful women in the world, I am really not confident of the safety measures that people are talking about.

Pichumani:  As someone who is still working in the US nuclear industry, I will not go into the merits of what you say, but I personally think that AID should not get involved in everything that is going on.  As he pointed out this is something we have to leave to those who can handle it.  In the US there is a Union of Concerned Scientists, a big organisation, it is their full time job, they are paid, not like AID volunteers.  They have a hard time fighting with the government.  So I strongly recommend that AID volunteers not get into this, at least not at this stage, we don’t have the resources, it is a very serious issue.

Udaykumar:  I agree with you – well I don’t agree with you, I think that AID volunteers should have the freedom to get involved or not.  And I as a political science student who believes in civil society cannot afford to let a bunch of scientists decide on my future, my children’s future and my land.  It is my home!  Where will I go?