Fukushima nuclear water release plan will be disastrous to environment': SP Udayakumar

The debate of nuclear power plants and its impact on the environment has been going on since quite some time. However, the nuclear power comes with several risks.

During an exclusive interview with InsideNE, writer and anti-nuclear activist from Tamil Nadu. S. P. Udayakumar, who has been vocal about his protest Kundankulam Nuclear Power Plant Project, reveals more about the vexed issue of the nuclear power plants and its impact on the environment. He stated that if Japan  releases the 1.17 million cubic metres of contaminated water, it can have disastrous impact on the environment.

Here are some excerpts from the interview-

What are the impacts of a nuclear power plant on environment?

Nuclear powerplants are very harmful to the environment because even when they function normally without any kinds of problems or hiccups, they do emit ionising particles. These things come out of the affluence from the nuclear power plant. These radioactive or ionized particles, can spread through air also.

So, you get exposed to these ionizing elements which is not good for the body or environment.

Some of the environmentalists proposed that the nuclear power is the answer for climate change. Actually we should call it climate distraction. The climate has been completely irreparably destroyed now.

Can you elaborate more on the impacts?

When you construct a nuclear power plant, you use a lot of cement, steel, concrete and a lot of energy is being used during the construction. After the plant is constructed, usually in India it takes around 25 years. Even after maintenance and overall management of the plant is managed with electricity that comes with polluting sources. So, all that goes into managing this comes from polluting sources. Instead of alleviating the pollution problem, the nuclear power plants are enhancing them. So, nuclear plant is definitely not an answer for climate distraction and hence it is not environment friendly.

We are left with a very high amount of radio active waste and it need to be taken care of for 48,000 years and it's a very dangerous. This is not an answer for friendly environment.

You have been vocal against the nuclear plants specially the, Kudankulum one. Is your opposition only to this plant? Why are you opposing it?

India is a densely populated country. We are not in a position to handle accidents that happened in Chernobyl or Fukushima. We don't have the money to deal with a nuclear disaster. A small incident can harm and kill so many people and our government will not be able to deal with the catastrophe at all. So, instead of dealing with issue, we are saying prevention is better than cure. We are not saying we don't want development.

Why people are not coming forward, is it due to lack of awareness or afraid of the authority?

Authorities in the country are not revealing the information to the public. For eg. when the India-US nuclear deal was signed in 2005 by the Manmohan Singh government, it didn't disclose all the information to the public. There was no widespread debate. They think that the ordinary people of the country are not up to the mark to discuss the issue. It's not true. Our people are very intelligent. They may not be very literate, but they know what's good the environment, for their children and for the country.

The ruling class should learn to respect the feelings and sentiment of the people which they don' want to do.

The authorities are also bought and sold by the corporate houses. They are all interest in money. It's all money for the politicians, the bureaucrats, the technocrats, the so-called scientists.

When people take to streets and protest against nuclear plants or some dangerous units like like this, they are immediately dealt with. They are called Maoists, Naxalites or deshdrohi, sedatious etc.

We have witnessed the collapse of Fukushima Nuclear plant in Japan during an earthquake, how safe are the nuclear plants across the globe, can we say such incidents may not repeat?

There is no plant called safe. Anything can happen at any time. We saw that cremand island in United states, in Chernobyl in 1986, and just 10 years ago in 2011 march a big accident happened in Fukushima. The Japanese were confident that nothing would happen. Their attitude is like that when anyone points out a risk factor. There was an earthquake measuring 9.0 at the richter scale and after that they had Tsunami waves as tall as 45 ft. Asa a result of both, there was an accident. Nuclear power plants melted down after the other.

In April 2011, they released a huge quantity of contaminated water into the sea. That's what many nuclear reactors around the world do. It will affect the coral reefs, get into the food chain of the people... You can get cancer and other ailments from these radiation and contamination. In Fukushima, they are going to release 1.17 million cubic metres of contaminated water. It will have disastrous impact.

What is the alternative?

We need electricity, we need development. But we have so many other sources. we can make viable business with solar power. Germany gets sunlight only 150 days of the year and they are making viable business out of so we too can. We can also make electricity from windmills. We can also produce electricity from sea waves and from hydroelectric power plants. There are many ways. But, our elites or the ruling is very much after nuclear bombs. So, to produce bombs, they need protonium and it is produced in nuclear power plants. It's about bombs, it's about the inferiority complex that our leaders feel towards the west, the north now or towards the white. If we can use our creativity originality, we can go for so many alternatives.

Any message to the viewers?

I would like to appeal to the people of India, We should put fore the pressure on the ruling that they cannot fiddle with our lives. All lives are equally precious. We need development and electricity but not at the cost of our lives. Let us be Indians and decide what India needs.

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