The man, who has not made a mistake, probably never did anything new!
A E.Terming as ‘totally unacceptable’ the opposition by environmental activists to the proposed Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project in Maharashtra, top nuclear scientist M.R. Srinivasan Wednesday strongly advocated the need for nuclear power to fuel India’s developmental programmes.
At the same time, he observed that the government and political parties have failed to evolve a proper mechanism to resolve issues of compensation for land acquisition and other issues which subsequently delay implementation of such mega-projects.
Delivering the first Homi Sethna Memorial Lecture on ‘Future of Nuclear Power After Fukushima’ here, Srinivasan said he had personally selected the site for the Jaitapur project, in coastal Ratnagiri, way back in 1984, keeping in view factors like no agriculture barring fodder grass and no human settlements.
‘There would no effluents which could affect the mango orchards or fishing activity. We have actual experience at Tarapur and Kalpakkam and at neither of these places there has been an adverse impact on marine life,’ Srinivasan said.
Srinivasan pointed out that for too long the country has overlooked environmental concerns while implementing developmental projects.
‘In the last ten years or so, there is a justified concern that future activities must not damage our environment. Past activities should be revisited and augmentation of effluent disposal to meet current criteria must be done promptly,’ he said.
However, in recent times, there is a sense of ‘triumphalism’ amongst activists whenever a project is stopped or abandoned, Srinivasan lamented.
He raised questions on how poverty and deprivation can be eliminated if the country does not create wealth through economic development. Cement, steel, aluminium, fertilizers, and other basic raw materials and vital infrastructure like railways cannot be produced or run without electric power, he said.
He warned that in the decades to come, petroleum would either be too expensive or simply not available. Then, the transport systems would have to be run on electricity or on hydrogen produced by using fossil fuel or electricity.
Though options like solar and wind energy are available, they would prove to be inadequate or uneconomic as compared to nuclear power.
‘Sometimes, our environmental activists consider all of us involved in industrial activities as ‘anti-national’ people and confer on themselves all patriotism. As a person who has spent some five and a half decades in developing nuclear power, under difficult conditions, I consider this value judgement of our environmental activists completely unacceptable,’ Srinivasan asserted.
He said that four decades ago, India celebrated when a new dam, steel plant, power plant, fertilizer plant or a canal system was built.
‘Now, we seem to celebrate everytime a steel plant, aluminium plant or power plant is stopped,’ he said.
In contrast, he referred to China, whose mega-infrastructure projects are viewed with admiration by the world.
