Fear not, Russian envoy tells Koodankulam people

CHENNAI: In a bid to allay the fears on the safety of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant that has run into trouble following the continuous agitation by local people in Idinthakarai, Russia on Thursday offered to take civil society members and journalists to its VVER project sites to drive home the point that the technology is sound and safe.Terming the protests as ‘unfortunate’, Consul General of the Russian Federation in Southern India, Nikolay A Listopadov, told Express on Thursday that Russia would not be constructing six more VVER plants now, over and above the score of such reactors functioning throughout the country, if the technology was not safe enough.Representatives of the people and journalists could check out for themselves the Russian reactors firsthand and decide if they were safe or not, Listopadov said, pointing out that the new plants were also being constructed by the same company, Atomstroyexport, that has built the Koodankulam plant. However, he was not that keen on having any debate with ‘professional activists’ as they wanted a clear ‘no-nuclear policy’. Acknowledging the right of the local people to protest against the project, the Russian envoy said much more needed to be done to dispel the fears of those at the grassroots level.Hopeful of the plant being commissioned, he said Russia was interested in reaching out to the people by providing authentic information on the VVER plants but would rely on the Indian nuclear scientists and authorities.