There was a news item in today’s DNA: “No clear reason in the Kudankulam judgment” authored by Praful Bidwai. It is shocking to see that he is questioning the very judgment of the Supreme Court which we all hold in great esteem. It is a well-informed judgment.
The judgment is very well made
asking the government to follow all the safety related recommendations of the
Indian Regulatory Board, AERB. The plants are ready and the technology is well known.
There are very few cases of fatality in nuclear industry as compared to any
other industry. There are well studied and well established techniques for the
management of radioactive wastes.
One should not forget that we are
all exposed to natural background radiation from space, from the radioactivity present
in earth and the air we breathe. This we cannot avoid. We also do not mind
getting X-rayed or CT scanned for diagnosis of diseases. These procedures do
result in giving radiation dose to us.
The number of deaths Mr. Bidwai
claiming (Chernobyl and Fukushima) is only the estimates and not the actuals! People
should not be misguided by these mathematically calculated numbers. Compared to
this calculated numbers, one can see instant fatalities in natural events. For
example, the recent US twister with the energy equivalent of 600 Hiroshima
bombs, resulted in deaths, and mass destruction in Oklahoma, of the order of USD2
billion!
It is rightly pointed out that
one has to pay a small price for the immense benefits one gets from the use of
electricity. These small risks are ACCEPTABLE.
It is time that the anti-development
groups, anti-nuclear group in particular, should stop playing with estimated
number of fatalities in any development programmes and focus on something more productive
and serve the humanity.
