CHENNAI: A writ plea has been made in the Madras High Court to restrain the governments in the State and the Centre from going ahead with the construction and functioning of the Koodankulam Nwuclear Power Project (KKNPP) in Tirunelveli district, before providing necessary facilities and infrastructure for evacuation of the people living within a radius of 170 km to a safer place, besides ensuring rehabilitation facilities.In his public interest writ petition, advocate KS Radhakrishnan of Palavakkam submitted that developmental activities could not be at the cost of the lives of the general public. After the tragic accident in Chernobyl thermal power plant in Russia in April, 1986, many countries had started closing such units. The radiation emerging from the plant was dangerous with potential to kill or cause serious damage to the lives of humans, plants, animals and other species, within a radius of 170 km. In the event of any accident, a developing country like India could not mobilise manpower and money power to evacuate the local people. India had ventured into the 3.4-billion dollar project with Russia for installation of light water reactors for production of 2,000 MW of power with the existing installed capacity of 1,850 MW of nuclear electricity, which was a Russian technology almost similar to the one at Chernobyl. The assurances given by the governments that there was no possibility of any accident were not cent per cent foolproof.
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