PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE FOR SAFE ENERGY (PECOSE)
New No 16, Rotler Street, Choolai, Chennai 600 112
Cell: 94454 22791 Email: pecose.india@gmail.com
Convenor: Prof Dhruba Mukherjee Office Secretary: S Ganesan

July 16, 2013

PRESS RELEASE
To: The News Editor/Chief Reporter

(For Favour of Publication/Circulation)

The People’s Committee for Safe Energy(PECOSE) has issued the following statement on the go-ahead given for the commissioning of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP).

PECOSE condemns the initiation of commissioning the KKNPP

The People’s Committee for Safe Energy (PECOSE) condemns in strongest terms the Government’s action of initiating the First Approach to Criticality of Unit-1 of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project, completely disregarding the people’s sustained protests and their concern for safety.

Serious and valid doubts about various safety aspects of the plant have been raised by several experts. The Supreme Court directive had clearly said that the AERB, NPCIL, MoEF and TNPCB would 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. But instead of addressing these issues to ensure the safety and security of the common people, the Government simply brushed them aside and went ahead with commissioning the plant.

The AERB got around the Supreme Court Directive through a subterfuge. They went by the literal meaning of the Supreme Court Directive by only ‘filing’ a sealed Report to the Court on Friday afternoon, and before the court or anyone else could go through it, or take any action, the NPCIL initiated the process towards commissioning the plant.

PECOSE had demanded that the commissioning of the plant should not start before a thorough review by an independent body of experts. PECOSE strongly condemns the duplicitous act of the NPCIL with total disregard to legitimate concerns of the inhabitants, and vows to stand by the people in their struggle against the commissioning of the KKNPP.