Build solar power plant, anti-nuke activist tells Centre

Chennai: Anti-nuclear activist S.P. Udhayakumar has suggested to the Centre to take up low cost and environment-friendly solar power project instead of expanding expensive Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant.

Mr Udhayakumar’s suggestion came in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday laid the foundation to KKNPP’s unit 3 and unit 4 of 1,000 mw capacity each through video-conferencing.

The two units will be built at a cost of Rs 39,849 crore. The first two units were initially projected to cost Rs 13,000 crore but it was revised to Rs 17,270 crore. Now the final estimate was Rs 22,462 crore. “In fact, installing a nuclear plant and generating power from it is akin to feeding an elephant. The Central government is wasting the public money. At present situation, generation of a unit of power from nuke plant will cost Rs 9 to Rs 12 without taking into account cost of land acquisition and maintenance of nuclear waste,” he said in a statement.

Whereas the cost of a unit of power generated from solar and wind sources will cost about '5, he said. Pointing to the Adani’s Rs 4,536 crore 648 mw solar power project at Kamuthi in Ramanathapuram, he said with the estimated project cost of Rs 39,849 crore for setting up of third and fourth reactor in KKNPP, a 6000 mw solar plant could be established.

Mr Udhayakumar also noted that solar power plant could be constructed at the least possible time in contrast to long duration taken for commissioning nuclear power plant. Work on Units 1 and 2 of the Kudankulam Power Plant began in 2001 and was supposed to be completed by 2007 and 2008. But the Unit 1 began commercial operations in December 2014 while Unit 2 was connected to grid in August this year.

However, the government claims that it would build the new units by 2022, he pointed out. Adani’s solar power project was inaugurated by the chief minister on September 21 this year for which MoU was signed only in July last year, he said.
Pointing to the various shortcoming of nuclear power including health and environmental impacts, he appealed to the Centre to drop the nuclear power projects in the larger interest of the public.

An energy expert, on condition of anonymity, said that the major problem of renewable power is its intermittent nature. “You will get solar power only during the day time when the sun shines. You will get wind power only when the wind blows. But it is cheaper and safer form of energy compared to the nuclear power plant which can operate round the clock and supply electricity at night,” he said.