India vows to improve atomic safety for sea and soil

India vows to improve atomic safety for sea and soil

MUMBAI (AFP) – India should ramp up safety mechanisms at its existing and planned nuclear power plants in the wake of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, environment minister Jairam Ramesh said on Friday.

“What happened in Fukushima was a wake-up call for all of us and we have to draw the appropriate lessons,” he told a news conference in Mumbai, referring to the damage caused to the Japanese plant by the twin disasters on March 11.

“We have to improve our safety processes… review all our environmental appraisal procedures for coastal plants, power plants, refineries, oil storage depots and see how equipped we are to deal with emergencies like tsunamis.

“I’m not calling for a rethink. I’m calling for a deeper think.”

At present, three percent of India’s electricity comes from nuclear power but the government wants to increase that to six percent by the end of the decade and 13 percent by 2030, Ramesh said.

But concerns have been raised, including from senior industry figures, about the government’s emphasis on nuclear power to meet the country’s growing energy needs since the crisis in Japan and its ability to cope with a disaster.

In particular, environmental campaigners and local people are opposed to a planned giant, six reactor plant in Jaitapur on the western coast of Maharashtra state, some 250 miles (400 kilometres) from Mumbai.

They say the location is prone to earthquakes while villagers in the area who are dependent on fishing and farming say the plant will rob them of their livelihoods and nuclear waste could pollute the soil and sea.

Safety audits have already been carried out at two nuclear plants at Tarapur in Maharashtra which are similar to the plant in Fukushima, Ramesh said.

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