Amid spiralling protests holding up new nuclear projects, the country’s atomic energy establishment is looking to scale-up its outreach programmes significantly to enhance public acceptance of nuclear power.

Specific measures, suggested by Dr Srikumar Banerjee, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, in a missive to the nuclear establishment, include the need to increase development work in the vicinity of all of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd’s operating plants as well as proposed project sites.

The emphasis would be on proactively providing education, healthcare and other social services in the neighbourhood of project sites.

Activities with social relevance

Besides, the nuclear power major hopes to initiate departmental activities, having social relevance, including deploying nuclear agriculture tools, food preservation measures and waste-to-wealth programme, for the benefit of the people living around project sites.

The plan to scale-up the outreach programme comes in the wake of strong protests faced by new nuclear projects, spearheaded mainly by people residing in the vicinity of project sites.

There were protests reported at a site earmarked for a project in Haryana late last year, at the Jaitapur project site in Maharashtra earlier this year and ongoing protests at a site adjoining the Koodankulam project site in Tamil Nadu.

Higher outlay

While NPCIL does have some outreach measures in place at many of its operating plant sites, Dr Banerjee has emphasised on the need to “multiply them manifold” so that the benefit reaches a much larger community.

There are also indications that as a result of this, the total outlay for the nuclear power sector could be higher in the Twelfth Plan period (April 2012- March 2017) than the Rs 46,000 crore earmarked for the current plan period ending March 2012.

The proposals for the Twelfth Plan are being finalised currently, with the focus being on the pursuit of multiple reactor technologies, safety upgrades to address “beyond-design basis external events”, increased emphasis on applications of nuclear technology and outreach programmes to enhance public acceptance of atomic power at large.

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