Chennai, Aug 31 (IANS) The Madras High Court Friday gave its nod to Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) to load the fuel in the first reactor of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) being set up in Tirunelveli district, an official said.
Tirunelveli is around 650 km from here.
“Disposing a batch of petitions filed against the setting up of the two 1,000 MW reactors, the court said the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) is the expert body that look into safety aspects which has satisfied itself about the safety features and measures,” M. Vetriselvan, a lawyer, told IANS.
Vetriselvan is a junior to advocate M. Radhakrishnan representing G. Sundarrajan, who has filed the petition in the court challenging the consent given by the AERB to NPCIL to load the fuel.
Vetriselvan said the court also said that there is no need for getting the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) and environmental clearances once again for the project.
On the issue of implementing the safety measures as recommended by a task force set up in the wake of nuclear accident at Fukushima in Japan, the court said the AERB would stipulate when these should be implemented, Vetriselvan said.
The court said that all the safety measures should be implemented by NPCIL at KNPP.
The court also directed the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) to monitor the environmental aspects and also the temperature of the trade effluents discharged into the sea.
The court also directed the state government to take construct and upgrade the fishing infrastructure, good quality schools, hospitals and conduct safety mock drill regularly so that the people get conversant with the safety measures.
Meanwhile, a senior NPCIL official told IANS that the fuel would be loaded after a team from Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) inspects the KNPP and give its green signal.
