[sacw] Oppose any move for a Nuclear power plant in West Bengal

[Harsh Kapoor]

FYI
Harsh Kapoor
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Statement by Anti-Nuclear Forum, West Bengal, India

14 January, 2000 

We note with grave concern the statement by West Bengal chief minister
Jyoti Basu favouring the setting up of a nuclear power plant in the state.
Basu said this at the golden jubilee celebrations of the Saha Institute of
Nuclear Physics in Calcutta on 11 January. The move already had the
support of the opposition in the state Assembly. Its leader, Atish Sinha,
also present at the function, urged him to take up the matter with the
central government immediately. It seems that the Centre will concur, as
APJ Abdul Kalam, principal scientific adviser to the central government
and India's nuclear tzar, sermonised from the same dais that increased
generation of nuclear power would be a key factor in India's
transformation from a developing to a developed country. The Leftist
chief minister should be aware that there is a strong people's movement
all over the world for a long time opposing nuclear power for its huge
costs, risk of accidents and dangerous radiation. Nuclear power is being
phased out in the industrialised countries. No new plant has been
sanctioned in the United States since 1974. Germany is planning on how
soon these plants can be closed down. France, where nuclear electricity
accounts for 78 per cent of its power output, and which Basu lauded as an
example to follow, has decided in a 1998 referendum not to build any more
N-plants. Japan's enthusiasm for N-power suffered a jolt after the
Tokaimura accident last year. China stopped its march towards a
nuclear-powered future long back. In this perspective, considering the
grave dangers to people's life and health posed by nuclear power plants,
we call for a public debate on the issue. If the West Bengal government
imposes such a hazardous decision on the people of the state, the future
generations will never forgive it.