Take action! Keep Japan's nukes out of India!

PETITION DEADLINE: November 6, 2016

 

Japan intends to to export nuclear technology to India, a country that has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and possesses nuclear weapons. Signing the Indo-Japan Nuclear Cooperation Agreement this month will  increase the military tensions in South Asia. It also highlights the Japan government's callous disregard of victims of Japan's ongoing nuclear power catastrophe, Fukushima, since Japan insists on spreading nuclear  technology to other countries, while continuing to deny their own victims compensation.   

 

In India, citizens who are concerned about the dangers of nuclear power have mounted large-scale protests, which have been met with brutal repression. Compensation for land acquisition, safety measures in case of accidents and evacuation plans are woefully inadequate.

 

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India’s Former Nuclear Regulator Says, Govt. Might Be Hiding A Serious Accident Underway In Gujarat

As reported at Countercurrents.org by Kumar Sundaram, senior researcher with Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) and Editor of DiaNUke.or, a "small Loss-of-Coolant Accident (LOCA)" may be underway at the Kakrapar Nuclear Power Station (photo, left{ in Gujarat, India. Ironically enough, the incident began on March 11th, the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe in Japan.

The retired chief of India’s nuclear regulator, Dr. A. Gopalakrishnan, has made the dire warning, after piecing together information from various sources. The article includes an extended commentary by Gopalakrishnan, including this disclaimer:

Let me caution the reader that the above conjecture is based on bits and pieces of reliable and not so reliable information gathered from different people close to the accident details and in positions of authority. Future detailed evaluation may or may not prove my entire set of conclusions or part of them to be not well-founded. But , technical experts are compelled to put out such conjectures because of the total lack of transparency of the Indian cilvilian nuclear power sector and the atomic energy commission (AEC) , the Dept. of Atomic Energy (DAE) , the NPCIL [Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited] and the AERB [Atomic Energy Regulatory Board].

Update on March 14, 2016 by admin

The Government of India's Atomic Energy Regulatory Board has published a document reporting that the incident has been designated as an INES-1 "Anomaly" on the U.N. IAEA scale.

Kudankulam goes critical

The Hindu: The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) has demanded an immediate halt to the commissioning of the Kudankulam nuclear power project (KKNPP) and initiation of an independent safety review.

In a statement here on Tuesday, the CNDP described the announcement of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) that the first Kudankulam nuclear reactor had attained criticality, or the beginning of a fission chain reaction, as a “shocking development.” This important step in the plant’s commissioning, which would make the fission process irreversible, violated the spirit of the Supreme Court’s May 6 order, it said.

Report to be filed

The Supreme Court had directed that the NPCIL, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board should “oversee each and every aspect of the matter, including the safety of the plant, impact on environment, quality of various components and systems in the plant before commissioning of the plant.” A report was to be filed before the court prior to the commissioning of the plant.

Implicit in the order, the CNDP said, was not just the formal filing of such a report, but its perusal and approval by the Supreme Court. However, the agencies concerned merely filed the report in a sealed envelope, but the court confirmed on July 15 that it had not even seen, let alone approved, the report.

Bypassing procedures

The CNDP viewed the development as part of a pattern followed by the nuclear establishment in cutting corners and bypassing essential procedures in matters of safety. It also amounted to a breach of public trust, and showed contempt for democratic and judicial processes.

The statement said the Kudankulam reactor was made critical despite the massive and sustained peaceful popular protests against the plant, and despite numerous warnings by nuclear experts, including the former AERB Chairman A. Gopalakrishnan, about the plant’s vulnerability to hazards and the use of ‘substandard equipment’ supplied by Russian company Zio-Podolsk. “This is profoundly anti-democratic and totally unacceptable,” it said and added that, ironically, the Kudankulam reactor reached criticality on the day that China bowed to public protest by announcing the abandonment of a nuclear processing project in the Southeast.

The signatories — Achin Vanaik, Praful Bidwai, Lalita Ramdas, Abey George and P.K. Sundaram – also wanted the authorities to revoke the criminal charges filed against the protesters in Kudankulam with immediate effect in keeping with the Supreme Court’s order.

Sign to stop nuclear exports from Japan to India

We stand in complete opposition to the India-Japan nuclear cooperation agreement that is currently under intense negotiation. The governments of both countries must refrain from promoting nuclear commerce, jeopardising the health and safety of their people and environments.

The Fukushima accident in Japan should provide an eye-opener to the Indian government and it must realise that cooperation in/supply of nuclear technology comes with insurmountable safety risks. Nuclear accidents result in totally unacceptable damages to people and the environment. Even more than two years after the accident in Fukushima the reactors are far from being under control and massive radioactive releases have contaminated the ground, air and water, contaminations that coming generations will have to endure even after it has taken its toll on the current generation. The criminal nexus of the nuclear Industry and policy makers now stands exposed.

For the poor villagers in India, this would mean more displacement, land-grabbing, radiation and loss of livelihood. They are already under siege from their own government at the Koodankulam and Jaitapur nuclear sites.  

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Indian government attempts to choke income flow for NGOs

Anti-nuclear protesters in India continue to be under seige at the hands of their government which is now attempting to choke off overseas financial support for NGOs there when almost none is available in India. Anti-nuclear protesters have already been shot (dead), arrested, harassed etc attempting to exercise their democratic rights to stop the destructions of lands, lives and livelihoods for mega nuclear power plants. Read more in today's Washington Post.