Chennai: Several eminent personalities including politician and advocate Prashant Bhushan gathered in the city on Saturday to discuss how the Centre has for years tied up with countries for nuclear deals but has failed to understand its deadly impacts.
Former Chairman of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, Dr A. Gopalakrishnan was also present at the occasion and pointed out that the Make in India campaign being applied to nuclear energy could result in very dangerous implications for the country.
“As somebody who has dedicated 56 years of his life to being a nuclear scientist I can with confidence say that installing more nuclear plants at Kudankulam is only going to create a bigger risk of a wide scale disaster. We have to learn from Fukushima and also other countries that are now slowly shutting down their nuclear plants,” he explained.
Bhushan, who recently formed the Swaraj Abhiyan party, has been fighting cases for anti-nuclear protestors for several years now and has played an active role in the movement himself. Speaking at the conference, Bhushan explained how the cost of nuclear accidents is much more than the cost of generating energy itself.
“We are putting lives at risk by building these nuclear plants especially when it is totally avoidable.” The scientists also stressed how solar energy was so much cheaper than nuclear power and how nuclear power would only benefit a mere two percent of the population.
Sankar Sharma, an electrical engineer, said that even though it may seem miniscule step but the very basic step to stop nuclear plants is to save energy – simply by turning off lights and switching to solar energy.
The other nuclear scientists and social activists who were part of the dialogue also brought up the fact that a majority of them have been slapped for sedition cases ever since they started the fight against nuclear energy. “We have all been called anti-national for partaking in this movement but nothing is going to stop us for fighting against nuclear plants,” said Neeraj Jain, a member of Lokayukt and social activist.
