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Journalism of Courage
A plea was moved in Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking a restraint on the Centre from commissioning the Kudankulam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu in view of the alleged use of sub-standard equipment in the plant.
G Sundarrajan,one of the PIL petitioners against commissioning of the plant over safety concerns,sought the courts intervention because of certain disturbing developments coming to light after the judgment was reserved in December.
The plea alleged that the Russian security agency had arrested the procurement director of the company Zio-Podolsk that supplied equipment to the plant,on charges of sourcing sub-standard steel blanks.
Equipment manufactured with cheap Ukrainian steel have been used in nuclear reactors built by the Russians in Russia,Bulgaria,Iran,China and India. The dangers of such sub-standard equipment and construction became evident on July 17,2011,when the containment building of the Leningrad NPP-2 reactor that was under construction collapsed exposing the crumbling of steel structures, it stated.
The plea alleged that delay in commissioning of the plant was due to the disclosure of these facts. It has come to light through international media reports that one of the reasons for non-commissioning is the failure of sub-standard equipment and components used, stated the application.
It has requested the court to direct the government not to take any steps towards commissioning the plant or bringing the reactors to initial criticality till the issue was examined,with independent experts.
The application demanded that the operator should file fresh report in the court on the status of implementation of the post-Fukushima safety measures,besides conducting mock-drills in the vicinity of the plant and comply with all the disaster management guidelines.
