Plea against MAPS units dismissed

Chennai: The Madras high court dismissed on Monday a public interest litigation which sought to forbear the authorities from running the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) (units I and II), Kalp­ak­kam, Kancheepuram district, without first implementing the Nuclear Po­wer Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) committee’s task force report of Mar­ch 2011 and the Atomic Energy Regu­lat­ory Boa­rd (AERB) report of August 2011 and obtaining environmental clearance in accordance with law.

A division bench, comprising Chief Justice R.K. Agrawal and Justice M. Sathyanarayanan, di­s­­­m­­issed the PIL filed by advocate M. Vetris­elvan. According to the petitioner, there were rep­orts of several mis­haps, including heavy water leaks in 1999, internal contamination in 2001 and a worker being inju­red after he picked up a radioactive substance in 2002.

During January 2003, five workers were expo­sed to high levels of radiation. MAPS had not fully implemented the recommendations of the NPCIL committee's task force given after the Fukushima disaster in Japan, he added. Addi­tional solicitor general P. Wilson denied the allegations and explained MAPS’ action plan and implementation procedure.

The bench said the petition proceeds on the footing that everything was not in order, whereas the authorities' counter-statement, coupled with information obtained by the petitioner through RTI Act, disclosed that safety measures were in place. The court said the apprehensions expressed by the petitioner were unfounded and, therefore, no positive direction can be issued.