Jayalalithaa urges PM to block Koodamkulam N-power project in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa today wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to halt construction of the Koodankulam nuclear power project, saying its construction was creating "fear" in villages near it.

The letter accuses the centre of "abdicating its responsibility" by not sending ministers or experts to assure protesters about the nuclear plant. She demanded that work on it be stopped till there is a "consensus".

She said the disaster at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant following the earthquake and tsunami in March had exacerbated the villagers' fears.

Villagers around Koodankulam, 650 km from Chennai, have been protesting for some time against the nuclear plant. Most of them are fisher-folk.

The protests intensified in recent weeks after project officials said the hot run (testing with dummy fuel) of the first reactor had reached the final stage and commercial power production would begin in December.

Jayalalithaa's appeal came even as the fast observed by over 125 anti-Koodankulam nuclear project protesters entered the ninth day today.

The protesters had earlier rejected the chief minister's view that the project had adequate safety parameters. The 2x1000 MW power plant is being built by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) with Russian help.

Udhayakumar, a leader of the protest and organiser of the 'people's protection council', said Russia itself was not building any nuclear plant after 1986. "So how can we say that Russian technology is safe"?

The Tamil Nadu government had on, 15 September, sent three state ministers to persuade the protesters to call off their fast; but it remained inconclusive.