Armed Persons Surrounding Palce of Tuticorin Port today:
Tamil Nadu: The
anti-Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) protesters may attempt to
hold demonstrations and lay siege to Tuticorin port and government
offices on Saturday. They had on Friday threatened to stop all
activities at the port. The protest will be led by activist SP
Udayakumar, according to media reports.
Shipping minister GK
Vasan had on Friday urged the anti-nuclear plant activists at Kudankulam
to desist from stalling activity at the VOC Port (formerly Tuticorin
port).
The Kudankulam nuclear power plant
has not yet been made operational. The Nuclear Power Corporation of
India Limited (NPCIL) has begun loading enriched uranium fuel rods in
the first reactor of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) in Tamil Nadu following a nod from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB).
India's atomic energy regulator on Friday said it has given its nod to Nuclear Power Corporation Ltd (NPCIL) to load enriched uranium fuel rods in the first reactor at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) in Tamil Nadu.
"We have given the nod to NPCIL to load the fuel at KNPP on Tuesday.
NPCIL has completed the stipulations that we had earlier laid in our Aug
10 sanction to load the fuel," Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB)
chairman SS Bajaj said from Vienna, where he is attending the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference.
According to him, it would take around 8-10 days for NPCIL to complete the fuel loading process.
"NPCIL has fulfilled all the conditions that had been laid by us," Bajaj said.
The NCPIL, the country's atomic power plant operator, is in the process
of loading the 163 enriched uranium fuel rods in the first reactor at
KNPP from Wednesday, sources told IANS.
Senior NPCIL officials were however not available to comment on the issue.
The People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), in a statement on
Friday, demanded NPCIL stop the fuelling process immediately.
NPCIL is setting up the KNPP at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu's Tirunelveli
district, around 650 km from Chennai with two Russian-made VVER 1,000 MW
reactors.
After the reactor is fuelled, activities to approach
first criticality-starting fission chain reaction, for the first time
in a reactor, will be taken up.
Then the power generation will be gradually scaled up on AERB's permission, based on the results of various studies.
Observers from IAEA are expected at KNPP as the reactors fall under the safeguard agreement.
The KNPP is an outcome of the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) signed between India and the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1988. However, the project construction only began in 2001
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