Jaitapur

Located in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra, Jaitapur is the site for the proposed 900 MW nuclear power project — the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project (JNPP), said to be the world's largest. The Government of India sanctioned the project, and three others, in October 2005.[caption id="attachment_56465" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Sajjad Hussain/AFP Photo"][/caption]The Press Information Bureau informs that the plant derives its name from the Jaitapur lighthouse. JNPP will be operated by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL), a GoI enterprise, and will be designed and developed by France-based engineering firm SA Reva, also the supplier of enriched uranium for 25 years. The project, financed by a consortium of French financial firms, will employ six European Pressurised Reactors of 1650 MW each; the plant will be “PWR-type”, based on enriched uranium fuel.Roadblocks:• The French firm Areva cited lack of clarity on implementation of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2010 that was passed in Indian Parliament in August 2010. The law gives the plant operator the right to seek damages from the supplier and manufacturer in case a nuclear accident occurs due equipment with “latent and patent defects or sub-standard services”. In July 2011, the government finalised the rules of implementation of the nuclear liability law, a move awaited by Areva.• Peaceniks are opposing nuclear power at large citing industrial disasters like Chernobyl, where victims continue to live with the after-effects and await justice. The opposition gained force after the leak in Japan’s Fukushima plant following the Tsunami in March 2011.• Finland, France, and UK had jointly written to AREVA, raising certain serious objections to the current design of control and instrumentation for vital safety aspects of an EPR plant.• Activists claim that despite government statements that Jaitapur lies in seismic zone III and is not earthquake-prone, “the land for the plant lies is seismic zone four, out of a possible five. This has been confirmed by documents obtained under the Right to Information Act of 2005," and is indeed earthquake-prone.• Environmentalists are concerned about the loss of biodiversity in the verdant western ghats.• Land acquisition, though complete, has not been accepted by villagers who say their land has been taken forcibly from them. By November 2010, only 33 of the 2335 villagers had accepted compensation for their land, says Wikipedia.• "Experts have already said that building, safeguarding and providing imported fuel to the reactor will be so costly that power from Jaitapur will be unaffordable," NDTV reported.