'Protests against Kudankulam unfortunate; all norms in place'

New Delhi: Terming as “unfortunate” the resistance to the commissioning of Indo-Russian joint venture Kudankulam nuke plant in Tamil Nadu, Russia today said all safety norms have been taken into consideration in view of the Fukushima accident in Japan.

However, it ruled out that the on-going protests will have any influence on Indo-Russian cooperation in future.

[caption id=“attachment_88140” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Japan and India signed an agreement in 2010. Reuters”]  [/caption]

“What is happening in Tamil Nadu is unfortunate. It looks like that the protests will shadow the commissioning of the plant which is going to happen in December,” Senior Counsellor Sergey V Karmalito in the Russian Embassy told reporters.

The protests have intensified against the project since the announcement late last month that the first of the two MWe reactors set up at the coastal village of Koodankulam would be commissioned in December, resulting in Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa writing to the Prime Minister seeking a halt on its opening.

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Asserting that all safety norms were put in place, Karmalito said following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, all “new requests” by India about the safety of the plant have been taken into consideration.

“Last month we conducted the trial runs, which was very important step as we checked all safety measures apart from whatever was envisaged of the plant in terms of features and productivity,” he said.

It is not correct to compare the Fukushima plant with Kudankulam as the reactor in Japan was constructed decades ago and the one in Tamil Nadu is “one of the most powerful and modern reactors” in the world, he said.

PTI