Top Indian scientists to launch nation-wide protest for ban on nuclear plants

[kristopher]

Top Indian scientists to launch nation-wide protest for ban on nuclear plants
Published: Wednesday, Oct 19, 2011, 17:45 IST
By DNA Correspondent | Place: Chennai | Agency: DNA

The agitation against Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) is a prelude to an-all India uprising for a total moratorium on nuclear energy, said a former Atomic Energy Commission scientist.

“We will soon launch an all-India agitation demanding a total ban on nuclear power plants,” Dr MP Parameswaran, who holds India’s first PhD in nuclear engineering told DNA. Many top scientists in the country have expressed their desire to join this nation-wide agitation.

Dr Parameswaran,a former scientist/nuclear engineer with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay quit DAE in 1975 after he learnt that nuclear energy was not a viable option. “Nuclear power plants are dangerous and should be shut down. There is a total veil of secrecy over their functioning. Our agitation is to force the government to enact a legislation banning nuclear plants,” he said.

He pointed out that an agitation by the top scientists of the US forced the country’s government to do away with the construction of any nuclear power plants. “Since 1977, USA has not built any new nuclear power plants.Many old plants were converted to coal- powered thermal stations. The three-year long agitation launched in 1974 saw all Nobel Prize winning scientists of the USA coming out against nuclear power plants,” he said.

According to Dr Parameswaran, no reactors are safe....

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_top-indian-scientists-to-launch-nation-wide-protest-for-ban-on-nuclear-plants_1600845

[valerief]

1. Bravo!

:applause:

[kristopher]

2. The protests against Kudankulam have turned into a major nationwide issue...

I don't think anyone was expecting this. They've beentrying to locate the plants for decades and because of historical precedent regarding land that had been expropriated by Indera Ghandi, they thought the people of Tamil Nadu would roll over. The plants are associated with a 1988 agreement with Russia to provide fuel when India was ostracized by their actions in developing nuclear weapons, but two previously selected locations were abandoned because of local opposition.

The people of Kudankulam have been trying to stop the plant since it was proposed but they've been ignored by the state and central government until Fukushima gave their voice a new meaning. Now the state governor is in a contentious relationship with the Prime Minister over the issue, and is tending to come down on the side of the protesters - I'm pretty sure she has the authority to shut the project down and the PM is making not-so-veiled threats about economic consequences to the region if she does.

[kristopher]

3. Looks like the French are spooked...

Unless you believe overt censorship is a positive thing, this gives insight into the negative social force than nuclear power acts to create:

Alliance Francaise cancels lectures on nuclear energy by French journalist
In the wake of India's postponement of French reactor purchase decision

French journalist Naike Desquesnes was preparing for a month-long trip to India to present a lecture series on “Covering Nuclear Energy Post-Fukushima” at six Alliance Francaise centres when she received a surprise phone call on September 23.

Philippe Gasparini, Director of Alliance Francaise Bangalore, where her first lecture was scheduled to be delivered on October 10, was calling to say that the subject of her talk had been turned down.

...Mr. Gasparini asked her if she had seen The Hindu's September 20 report that India would postpone its final decision on the purchase of the EPR type of nuclear reactors from France until post-Fukushima nuclear safety tests were completed satisfactorily. In the wake of recent uncertainty over nuclear energy and the possible impact on the French reactor manufacturer Areva, Ms. Desquesnes felt that French authorities were afraid of a debate on the subject.

Areva has an agreement to build the first of six EPR reactors at Jaitapur in Maharashtra with an option of four more reactors to follow, but nuclear deals around the world have been hit by the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster...

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2552690.ece

[kristopher]

4. Nuclear energy: No longer a sacred cow

Nuclear energy: No longer a sacred cow
Oct 20, 2011

by Shiv Visvanathan

...

The other day I was watching TV and listening to a whole generation of scientists defend a nuclear project. These were the legends of the time, but now just looked cantankerous. And I realised that every activist must turn spectator. It is not just a switch in perspective, but it also allows one to obtain a deeper sense of drama.

The Indian nuclear establishment has been full of Brahmins, especially Tamil Brahmin hawks. Displaced in their own state, they have become custodians of the atom state. They have been the most eloquent defenders of the relation between atomic energy and the state. No bunch of Jesuits was more loyal to the cause than the Indian nuclear technocracy. The Brahmin hawks of the nuclear establishment were either dismissive or ferociously arrogant about dissent. When questioned, they bristled, often acting as if their science, their patriotism or even their integrity was being questioned.

Dissenters, even outstanding scientists like CV Sheshadri or Amulya Reddy were brushed aside as if they were unnecessary viruses. The latter two offered a whole dream of alternative energy linking it to the socialist and democratic imaginations. The only other exception was Satish Dhawan, Director of the Indian Institute of Science and one of the brains behind space research. He encouraged the debate on the Kaiga nuclear project in Karnataka. But scientists like Raja Ramanna, who was Head of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), behaved like Fascist bullies when confronted with questions. Ramanna would dub journalists critical of atomic energy as anti-national.

This problem was compounded by the Nehru regime. The Bhabha-Nehru friendship added a sense of grace to the nuclear project. Stories that the Pugwash movement almost began in India added nuances of sensibility to it. The Congress under Nehru and Indira Gandhi created an almost incestuous link between State and nuclear science. It embodied a combination of science as expertise and atomic energy as security, to create an establishment that operated for decades outside the political domain. For years, questioning atomic energy was taboo in India...

http://www.firstpost.com/ideas/nuclear-energy-no-longer-a-sacred-cow-112249.html

If this is an accurate assessment of a shift in the popular perception of nuclear power, the industry is in serious trouble in India.
It isn't as if they lack alternative clean energy resources.