Kalpakkam nuclear power plant units cannot function without green nod: PIL

CHENNAI: The Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) at Kalpakkam has been operating its two units for about three decades without environmental clearance and hence the units cannot be allowed to run unless they fulfil mandatory requirements, a PIL has said.

The first bench comprising acting Chief Justice RK Agrawal and Justice M Sathyanarayanan, before whom the PIL filed by advocate M Vetri Selvan came up for hearing, has issued notices to the Centre as well as the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB).

The PIL said the two units of MAPS, located about 70km from Chennai, started working in 1983 and 1985 respectively and that there were reports of several mishaps, including heavy water leaks in 1999, internal contamination in 2001 and a worker being injured on touching a radioactive material in 2002.

Citing former chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), A Gopalakrishnan's reported statements, the PIL-petitioner's counsel M Radhakrishnan said details obtained under the RTI Act revealed that the MAPS administration had not fully implemented the recommendations of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) Committee's task force given after the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

The authorities have also admitted that they are still studying the implications of the presence of a volcano, about 100km from Kalpakkam. He said AERB had also admitted that no environmental clearance with regard to the storage of spent fuel in MAPS had ever been obtained by the authorities. "Unstoppable and unstorable nuclear waste would always have environmental impact," he said adding that for more than three decades the two units of MAPS had been working without the clearance.

Citing the apex court ruling on the recent Kudankulam nuclear power plant case, the PIL said that without due clearance from AEC, AERB and NPCIL, besides statutory authorities like ministry of environment and forests and TNPCB, units dealing with radioactive materials cannot be allowed to function.