Koodankulam and Beyond

Over the last couple of months the hunger strike ostensibly by the people living in the villages around the proposed Nuclear plant at Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu has been grabbing plenty of media attention forcing both the State and the Central Government to take notice. The issue has also reopened the larger debate on whether nuclear power should be an option at all for a country like India.
The protestors at Koodankulam are not asking for enhanced safety measures at the plant. They are not asking for a safety review by a panel of experts(something that the Govt. has now promised). They want the plant to be closed down. Why? Because Nuclear reactors are unsafe, see what happened at Fukushima, Koodankulam can also be hit by an Earthquake/ Tsunami, Russian reactors are worse than the others(remember Chernobyl) etc.
What is intriguing even more than the unreasonable and untenable demand is the timing and the nature of the Group organizing the protest. The Nuclear plant has been under construction for the last 11 years and so one would presume that was sufficient time for the villagers to do what they are doing now. Yet the last decade has been remarkably incident free except for very minor and sporadic protests. Why are the protests being ignited 2 months before the first reactor attains criticality and when the second is "almost 95% complete"?
Who are this "Group of Villagers" behind the protest? Some reports speak of the Local Churches being involved in mobilizing the people to protest but clearly the protest is not just a show run by the local priests. Some Group is funding and organizing these protests and the Government needs to tell the people who they really are.
India's installed Nuclear Power capacity is 4780 MW. Koodankulam alone will produce 2000 MW (1000 MW from each of the two reactors), an increase of almost 40% over the total production. The power generated from here can go a long way in tiding over the power crisis that is an endemic problem in the State and the region. Tamil Nadu's share from Koodankulam is to be 925MW. Considering that the state faces a shortfall of 1500-2500 MW in peak hours this 925MW represents a sizable proportion to help bridge the gap. The investment in Koodankulam is in the region of $ 3.5 billion, that is, over Rupees 16000 crores. To now say that the villagers dont want the plant nearby and to suggest it must be shut seems absurd.
Further it seems silly to say that only the lives of people around Koodankulam are important. What about the lives of those living in Chennai not far from the MAPS at Kalpakkam and those living in Mumbai near the Tarapore Reactors. Arent their lives as important? Are the protestors then suggesting that all existing reactors also be shut down? How will the power deficit be made up and by when?
While there is little doubt that no 100% guarantees are possible regarding the safety of nuclear power, it is what the Govt. believed to be an acceptable risk that the Nation then took more than 4 decades ago. Since then despite a few minor incidents the safety record has been good. Koodankulam being a newer reactor is likely to have more advanced safety features than the old reactors.
The questions that need to be answered regarding the ongoing debate are
1.Have all the promised safety measures as guaranteed at the time of commencement of the Koodankulam project been fulfilled? The expert committee can opine on this.
2.In the light of the Fukushima incident do any additional measures need to be taken?
If all safety measures have been taken as planned then the Government needs to take a firm stand that the reactor is safe and work would go ahead. If there are gaps in safety then they need to be addressed and the project must then go ahead with the gaps plugged. The State Government's rather ambiguous stand has not helped matters.
Regarding the larger issue of Nuclear Reactors and safety the protestors could address this issue to the Government while focusing on the reactors yet to be built. A healthy debate on this issue is in the interest of all the parties and the nation. But Koodankulam must go on. Attempting to shut it down seems to be an act of economic terrorism aimed at creating a road block to the development of the region and creating an energy crisis in the country (by entirely eliminating one source of power) thus harming its growth.