Jairam wants Jaitapur N-plant to put on safety belt first

Bangalore: Environment minister Jairam Ramesh today said the Jaitapur nuclear power project in Maharashtra would be implemented, but maintained that issues of safety measures need to be addressed. [caption id=“attachment_20436” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“To Jairam, nuclear energy has no alternative when it comes to meeting power requirements of India in future. Bruno Domingos/Reuters “]  [/caption] “The Jaitapur nuclear power project will be implemented,” Ramesh told reporters in response to questions. “We have to take safety measures. We have to review our safety systems in light of what happened in Fukushima,” he said, referring to the Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant in Japan where radiation leaked after an earthquake. Ramesh said to meet the energy requirements in India, there is no alternative to nuclear power. “Today, nuclear power accounts for 3 percent of our electricity supply. Our objective is to increase this to six percent by 2020 and to about 12 percent by about 2030,” the minister said. He said compensation issues raised at Jaitapur have been addressed by the state government which announced a compensation package a few days ago over and above the compensation offered by Nuclear Power Corporation of India. He said issues relating to marine biodiversity and livelihoods are being addressed by an experts’ committee that has been set up with Bombay Natural History Society. “The prime minister has said repeatedly that only safe nuclear power, economical nuclear power will be acceptable in India. So, there should be no fears on this score,” he said. PTI