Expert panel, anti-Kudankulam activists rule out further talks

Efforts to break the logjam over theKudankulam power plant hit a dead end on Tuesday as both the central expert committee and the anti-nuclear activists ruling out any further talks on the Indo-Russian project.

The 15-member expert group, set up by the Centre, stated categorically that it had "conclusively addressed" all safety related issues to allay the fears in the mind of local people living around the plant in coastalKudankulam.

"We have completed our job. We will not be talking to anyone as a committee. We have informed the Atomic Energy Commission chairman," expert group chairman AE Muthunayagam told PTI.

The development came on a day when the fourth round of talks between the expert group and the state government panel failed to take place after representatives of the agitators boycotted it protesting the attack on them allegedly by a Hindu outfit, supporting the project.

"Since the representatives of people in the joint forum are not prepared for any presentation from experts (of central expert group) and discussions, EGfinds that it is not in a position to proceed further," Muthunayagam said in a 70-page supplementary report presented to the district collector.

Giving thumbs up to the project, the EG report said "it meets all current safety requirements and is safe for operation" and slammed the anti-nuclear protesters for 'creating fear' in the minds of public and linking it to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan last year.

SP Udayakumar, Convenor of People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy, spearheading the five-month long protest, said, "We are not going to engage in talks anymore. Muthunagayam (central) Committee is a farce."

Three rounds of talks held earlier had failed to break the impasse with thePMANE representatives deadset on scrapping the project whose first unit was scheduled to be commissioned in December last but had now been postponed to coming May.

Ahead of today's talks, tension broke out in the Collectorate as the PMANEmembers and Hindu Munnani workers, who gathered there to submit a memorandum to the district collector demanding commissioning of the project, clashed.

The EG, which had earlier presented its findings, submitted a supplementary report stating that KNPP had advanced design safety features and Fukushima type accident would never occur.

"So, creating fear in the minds of public with partial information and selected video clippings on Fukushima is mischievous and not in the interest of the local public and the nation," the report said.

The central group, comprising experts from various fields including oncology, atomic energy and fisheries, was set up at the height of the protests.