Kudankulam protestors seek support for 'nuke-free' world

Intensifying their campaign against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, activists on Wednesday sought the support of the international community for scrapping the project and making the world 'nuclear free'.

In a letter to various foreign missions, the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy said though the global nuclear industry tries to promote nuclear power as the answer to global warming and climate destruction, the global community knows for sure that a "poisoned Earth with nuclear waste cannot be the answer for polluted air".

"We have no moral legitimacy whatsoever to produce electricity for our present needs and endanger the future of our children and the unborn generations with the dangerous booty of nuclear waste, contaminated sites and deadly radiation," said S P Udayakumar, convenor of PMANE.

He said many countries that had so far relied heavily on nuclear power have decided to phase it out.

Alleging that no public hearing had been held on KKNPP, he said the Environmental Impact Assessment report of the Indo-Russian project received by protestors was "outdated" and full of "inaccuracies and incomplete information".

"So let us make a solemn resolve here and now to build a new world that has no uranium mines, no nuclear reactors, no waste dumps and no nuclear weapons," Udayakumar said, seeking their support for stir and a "nuclear free" world campaign.

Commissioning of the first unit of the KNPP was originally scheduled for December last year but has been delayed due to year-long protests.