Residents protest Paris meet for Jaitapur nuclear plant

Make public letter written to bankers for financing 9,900 MW project

Published on:

04 Jun 2013, 7:37 am

People protesting the proposed nuclear power plant at Jaitapur, Maharashtra, close to their villages, on Monday made public a letter written to French and European bankers. The letter was released two days before negotiations at Paris between Indian nuclear bureaucrats, the French nuclear company Areva, international financiers and bankers to facilitate a soft loan for the project planned as the largest nuclear power project in the world. The 9,900 mega watt (MW) plant, is to be set up at Madban village in Ratnagiri. Residents are opposing it, saying it will destroy 938 hectare (ha) of eco-sensitive land with creeks and mangrove.

According to reports, senior officers of the Department of Atomic Energy and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) will attend a meeting on June 5 and 6.

Local people's fears

The letter cites the hazards of nuclear energy as the reason for opposition to the project. “We will never allow anybody to contaminate our ancestral land, seas, marine and land environment of this Konkan coast with nuclear energy. It has a dangerous fallout of ionizing radioactivity. We are prepared to embrace even death if the situation so warrants.”

Facts about Jaitapur nuclear power plant

Press statement on meeting to review status of Jaitapur nuclear power project and safety concerns

Letter on environmental clearance for Jaitapur Nuclear Power dated Dec 23, 2010 sent to Jairam Ramesh by Shankar Sharma, Power Policy Analyst

NPCIL Jaitapur Power project

Environmental impact assessment for proposed nuclear power park at Jaitapur, District Ratnagiri, Maharashtra

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