Station director of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) S. Sundar on Thursday held out an olive branch to the people of neighbouring Idinthakarai village who have been in the forefront of the agitation, calling upon them to have faith in the scientific community and let the authorities commission the project without further delay.
Mr Sundar, who made his appeal through the media, urged the fishermen’s community to give up its agitation, pointing out that the nuclear power project was being built with tax payers’ money for the benefit of the people.
He revealed that the employees at the plant were now working overtime to compensate for the five months when only essential maintenance was carried out owing to the agitation by the anti-nuke activists and the people of neighouring villages.
Helping the KKNPP staff are 25 NPCIL employees from Kalpakkam, Kakrapara and Kaiga, who arrived on Wednesday on special deputation.
Besides this 150 more employees from Narora, the Rajasthan power station and Tarapore station are expected soon to help speed up the work on the plant. “We are also mobilising our contract workforce and hope they will join us in a week,” Mr Sundar said.
The KKNPP is hiring job specific specialists from Russia for a period of six months to help it get things off the ground.
The station director, however, refused to set a tentative date for the commissioning of the project, only saying that a report on the hot run test at the plant had been submitted to the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and material inspection work had begun. “Once this is completed KKNPP will apply for AERB approval for fuel loading,” he added.