Debate over nuclear power plant in Kerala gains momentum as state considers options

Although a formal decision on the matter was yet to be taken, representatives of the KSEB and the State Power Department have already held preliminary talks with NPCI to explore the possibilities of building the first nuclear power plant in the state, which currently meets only about 30 percent of its electricity needs.

It has been learnt that Athirappilly in Thrissur, where a previously planned hydropower project had to be shelved due to protests by environmentalists, and Kasargod are among the sites being considered by the KSEB.

Speaking at a debate organised by the pro-Congress science organisation Sastra Vedi in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday, Sathish AV, head of the Nuclear Information Centre of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) in Tamil Nadu, dismissed the safety concerns.

Radiation levels at the KKNPP nuclear power plant were well below the prescribed limits and the highest safety measures are being taken, drawing lessons from accidents such as Fukushima in Japan and Chernobyl in Ukraine.

“The local people who have protested against KKNPP before are now demanding jobs at the plant,” said Sathish.

Former RVG Menon, principal of a government engineering college and well-known science activist, while believing that nuclear energy was a way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, raised serious concerns about the disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants.

He contradicted the NPCI official’s version that there were no fatalities in the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, saying that the long-term health risks and the evacuation of over 150,000 people within a 30-kilometer radius of the plant could not be ignored.

“Even several decades after the construction of the world’s first nuclear power plant, there is still no stable, permanent system for disposing of radioactive waste,” said Menon.

Menon also suggested focusing on advances in renewable energy sources such as solar and green hydrogen.

Opposition Congress leader VD Satheesan, who opened the debate, said that while people’s safety concerns about nuclear power plants were one way to meet rising energy demands, they needed to be addressed.