India's missile man has now stepped in to troubleshoot problems surrounding one of the country's biggest nuclear plants.
A Rs 200 crore 10-point action plan for development of the area around Koodankulam nuclear project was mooted by the former President as he appealed to people not to have even a 'nano sized doubt' over the power plant's safety.
Creation of 10,000 jobs and building a four-lane highway and a world-class hospital have been envisaged by APJ Abdul Kalam under the 'Koodankulampura' project plan submitted to the Tamil Nadu government for implementation by the Centre before 2015.
Vouching for the safety of the controversial project hit by protests, Kalam, who visited the site in Tirunelveli district yesterday, said people should not have 'even a nano sized doubt' over the safety of the project, as it met all the four safety aspects - nuclear criticality, radiation, thermal hydraulic and structural integrity safety.
Following are Kalam's 10 points or, what we could call Koodan 'Kalam':
1. Construction of a four-lane highway connecting Kudankulam and villages 30 km around it with Madurai, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari,
2. A world-class hospital with over 500 beds, mobile medical facilities to locals and
3. Creation of 10,000 jobs to people in the radius of 30 to 60 km
4. Bank loans to youth with up to 25 per cent subsidy.
5. Creating infrastructure facilities like construction of green houses, multi-storeyed housing complex, and playgrounds.
6. Fishermen in the area should be provided with motorboats, small jetties and fish cold storage facilities.
7. Provide one million litres of drinking water through desalination process and water should be brought from Pechiparai reservoir in Kanyakumari district for agriculture and drinking water needs.
8. Setting up of five CBSE and state government syllabus schools with hostel facilities
9. Connecting all villages through broadband Internet and
10. Setting up of Disaster Protection and Management Centre and guiding selected youth to get permanent employment.
In his study report submitted to the state government, Kalam also suggested creating infrastructure facilities like construction of green houses, multi-storeyed housing complex, and playgrounds.
He said fishermen in the area should be provided with motorboats, small jetties and fish cold storage facilities.
Kalam, a strong advocate of nuclear power, and who prepared the report along with his advisor V. Ponraj, said: "Efforts should be made to remove people's fears by providing relevant information and with their full co-operation, the plant should start functioning as scheduled to enable Tamil Nadu to get 1000 MW power."
No tsunami theat
The Koodankulam plant, Kalam said, is located in seismic zone II where there is no chance of an earthquake with a magnitude of 6 point on Richter scale.
The reactor building is built in such a way as to tolerate such an earthquake. On the tsunami threat, the Kalam report states that the site is located about 1,500 km from the tsunamigenic fault (where tsunamis originate).
Hence, geologically and scientifically, there is no chance of a tsunami hitting the Kudankulam coast, according to the report. Even if there is a tsunami, the waves will lose energy by the time they strike the Kudankulam site.
If there is a tsunami, wave height would not exceed 5.44 metres, whereas the reactor is located at 8.7 metres height, turbine plant at 8.1 metres, diesel generators at 9.3 metres height, and switch yard at a height of 13 metres, the report states.
According to Kalam, the reactor will automatically shut down in three minutes flat in case of natural disasters like earthquakes or tsunamis.