Protests against TN nuke plant unfortunate, says Russia

Terming as "unfortunate" the resistance to the commissioning of Indo-Russian joint venture Koodankulam nuke plant in Tamil Nadu, Russia on Tuesday said all safety norms have been taken into consideration in view of the Fukushima accident in Japan.

However, it ruled out that the on-going protests will have any influence on Indo-Russian cooperation in future.

"What is happening in Tamil Nadu is unfortunate. It looks like that the protests will shadow the commissioning of the plant which is going to happen in December," Senior Counsellor Sergey V Karmalito in the Russian embassy told PTI in New Delhi.

The protests have intensified against the project since the announcement late last month that the first of the two 1x1000 MWe reactors set up at the coastal village of Koodankulam would be commissioned in December, resulting in Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa writing to the Prime Minister seeking a halt on its opening.

Asserting that all safety norms were put in place, Karmalito said following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, all "new requests" by India about the safety of the plant have been taken into consideration.

"Last month we conducted the trial runs, which was very important step as we checked all safety measures apart from whatever was envisaged of the plant in terms of features and productivity," he said.

It is not correct to compare the Fukushima plant with Koodankulam as the reactor in Japan was constructed decades ago and the one in Tamil Nadu is "one of the most powerful and modern reactors" in the world, he said.