core sector communique

Experience from Fukushima Disaster

The Central Government attaches highest importance to ensuring that the use of nuclear energy in the country meets the highest safety standards. Following the Fukushima (Japan) incident the Central Government directed to take up safety reviews of the existing nuclear power plants. Accordingly, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) constituted task forces which reviewed the safety of the existing nuclear power plants in operation and under construction . In parallel, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) also constituted a high level committee to review safety of Indian nuclear power plants. The task forces of NPCIL and the AERB committee have found that Indian nuclear power reactors haver sufficient margins and features in the design to withstand extreme natural events. The reports of these task forces have been made public and posted on the websites of DAE/NPCIL and AERB, respectively. Recommendations to further enhance the safety in Indian nuclear power plants against extreme natural events have been made by the task forces and the AERB committees . A roadmap for their implementation in a time bound manner has been drawn up and the implementation process has commenced.

To give statutory status to the nuclear safety regulator, the Government has introduced the Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority (NSRA) Bill.

Several steps have been taken to allay the fears to the local villagers about the project. These include;

Several high level meetings with the state government officials and representative of the local people.

An Expert Group of 15 specialists have been constituted comprising renowned academicians, scientists, doctors and engineers to interact with the officials of the state government and spokespersons of the people in the neighbourhood of Kudankulam. The expert group has already had two meetings with the spokespersons of the local people and the nominees of the government of Tamilnadu.

Directives to Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) t enhance public awareness and outreach programmes in the area around the plant to allay their fears which are being implemented.

The Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s office Sh V Narayanasamy gave this information in a written reply to a question by Shri Shreegopal Vyas in Lok Sabha today.