India resumes work at controversial nuclear power plant

A turning point has occurred in the confrontation around the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, which is being built in India with Russian participation. Despite the protests of anti-nuclear activists, the Indian authorities, after a six-month break, decided to resume construction work and clear the territory of the nuclear power plant of dissenters. However, the crisis around the station is not over: the opposition accuses the authorities of betraying the interests of citizens, and the leaders of the anti-nuclear movement have declared an indefinite hunger strike.

The decision to begin the final stage of work at the Indian nuclear power plant Kudankulam, the general contractor of which is Atomstroyexport, was made at a meeting of the government of Tamil Nadu, headed by the state's Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha. It was Mrs. Jayalalitha - and not Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - who remained the key figure on whom the resolution of the crisis around the unfinished Russian nuclear power plant depended. The Constitution of the Indian Federation gives broad powers to state governments, and the issue of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, located in Tamil Nadu, is the prerogative of local, not central, authorities.

“The message that work on the Kudankulam nuclear power plant project has been resumed is good news,” Indian Ambassador to the Russian Federation Ajay Malhotra told Kommersant yesterday. “As I understand, starting from Tuesday, the entire composition of Indian and Russian engineers and workers had the opportunity to resume their duties. They are enthusiastic to make up for lost time. We are looking forward to the launch of the first power unit of the plant."

In order to commission the first power unit by August, J. Jayalalitha's cabinet developed a set of measures designed to return personnel to the construction site as soon as possible and put an end to protests by activists of anti-nuclear non-governmental organizations. Since the beginning of the week, state police have set up checkpoints on the main roads leading to the station and blocked access to the sites of thousands of rallies. Protest leaders reported arrests of anti-nuclear activists coordinating civil disobedience.

However, the authorities have not yet been able to completely break the resistance of the People's Movement against Nuclear Energy. Several dozen activists of the movement, led by its leaders S.P. Udayakumar and M. Pushparayan, gathered in the town of Idinthakkarey and declared an indefinite hunger strike. Thus, the epicenter of the protests moved to a village located 2 km from the station, where about 5 thousand of the most radical activists of the movement had already gathered.

The police, who were ordered to avoid forceful dispersal, took no action. "As long as the hunger strike is peaceful, there will be no problem," Tamil Nadu Deputy Director General of Police S. George said yesterday.

According to experts, the authorities took a wait-and-see approach, hoping that the heat and monsoon rains beginning in the area would help to completely put an end to the protests. At the same time, according to local media reports, deprived of the opportunity to move along roads blocked by the police, activists reach Idintakkarey by sea and by boat to support their comrades.

Meanwhile, the political crisis around the Kudankulam nuclear power plant is not over. Yesterday, Tamil Nadu's leading opposition party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader M. Karunanidhi accused state Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa of initially supporting the protesters by calling on the central government to stop work at the plant in September last year and then surrendering to their interests. As follows from Mr. Karunanidhi's statement, using the protests, the state chief minister actually blackmailed Manmohan Singh's cabinet, demanding from him additional allocations for the state's needs, and then, when the funds were received, she abruptly changed her position, giving the green light to India's nuclear construction of the century.

Sergei Strokan

"Kudankulam" was retaken from activists