Coordinator of People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy S.P. Udayakumar has demanded scrapping of the proposed India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) project in Theni district.
He asked the State government to make its stand clear in the wake of opposition coming in from various quarters for this Central government-funded project.
Talking to reporters here on Sunday, Mr. Udayakumar said, “The INO site is going to become a nuclear waste dump yard and 32 villages in Theni district will get affected if blasts are carried out for setting up the observatory. Factual information about the project should be provided in Tamil and Malayalam so that people of Tamil Nadu and Kerala learn what neutrino is all about,” he said.
Mr.Udayakumar, who inaugurated the People’s Science Forum in Madurai which is objecting to the neutrino project, accused that the INO project was nothing but a commercial venture taken up to benefit a US laboratory involved in nuclear studies. He urged the Centre to shift the project to some other State. On the Kudankulam nuclear power project, the PMANE coordinator reiterated his opposition and asked the government to announce how much power was being generated there at present.
“There are lots of defects in the nuclear plant there and only when a tragedy takes place, the government will realise its mistake,” he added.
