The South African government’s plan to bulldoze through a nuclear energy deal has been dealt what might be a fatal blow by the Cape Town High court which has declared the plan invalid. It found that the government had not followed due process in making the decision to pursue a nuclear power option, as well as in other critical areas.
Swedish energy company Vattenfall filed request for arbitration at the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), after Germany’s decision to phase out nuclear energy.
The multi-reactor meltdown accident in Japan beginning last March 2011 has not ended. Plants continue to leak radiation and shockingly no sytematic monitoring of radiation levels is taking place.
Have our rulers decided to place India on the wrong side of history and arrest her social progress? Going by their policy of forcibly promoting nuclear power regardless of its hazards, environmental damage potential, high economic and social costs, and unpopularity, that seems to be the case.
While countries all over the world review their nuclear energy plans and safety measures in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, the Indian government still pushes ahead with it's fiercely opposed Jaitapur plant.
Indian protest against nuclear power plans are answered with violent oppression. The brute force used to counter the public protests only worsens the situation and already has claimed one life.
There are 20 nuclear power plants in India, two in Pakistan and plans exist to expand the industry across South Asia; yet there are always multiple risks that exist as a result of the technology that cannot be mitigated.
As the Japanese nuclear crisis escalates in severity, and the myth about nuclear energy being safe is exposed - movements around the world are calling for a change of policy and moratoriums on plant construction.
The Japanese crisis is a wake up call for India, which is currently building of one of the world's largest nuclear power plants at Jaitapur, despite massive popular protest. When such a disaster can occur in an industrially advanced country like Japan, India, whose atomic agency is notorious for its poor safety standards, needs to rethink its nuclear ambitions.
As the global nuclear industry's fate hangs in the balance, India must rethink its nuclear power expansion plans and impose a moratorium on new reactors.
Despite a terrible history with nuclear technology, corporate and state actors try to disconnect these mega disasters from the energy industry in order to "normalise" that which continues threatens our very existance.
Around a hundred thousand people perished in Chernobyl. The toll from the nuclear disaster in Fukushima is likely to be high. The CNDP demands a moratorium on all further civilian nuclear activities in India and thorough review and transparent audit of the safety performance of all nuclear reactors.
In the Konkan, thousands of families in the environmentally rich and verdant Jaitapur area are waging a non-violent battle against the Department of Atomic Energy’s plan to construct the world’s biggest nuclear power complex in the region.
The Bhopal GoM’s proposals fall short of recommending the minimum the victims deserve in reparation. They also fail to hold Carbide’s and its successor Dow’s feet to the fire.
The Mayapuri cobalt-60 episode shows Delhi University scientists were reprehensible and proves again that the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board is too inept, unreliable and compromised to perform its assigned functions. We need another agency.
India's Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill represents capitulation to US and Indian corporate pressure, and a retreat from the state's responsibility to protect citizens against hazards.
