A Clear and Present Danger at Koodankulam: Shoddy Parts, Shabby Leaders, and Shaky Indian Lives!

NONVIOLENCE, ACTIVISM, ASIA--PACIFIC, ENERGY, BRICS, KUDANKULAM ANTI-NUCLEAR SATYAGRAHA, INDIA, 13 May 2013

People’s Movemenmt Against Nuclear Energy – TRANSCEND Media Service

May 3, 2013

The People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) accuses that the corrupt Congress Party and government in India, the Indian nuclear establishment and the Russian nuclear establishment consider Indian lives base and valueless and prepare to put our lives in danger for their own profits, commissions, power and prominence.

The Koodankulam reactors present a clear and present danger to the safety and well-being of Indian citizens with many substandard equipment and parts supplied by discredited Russian companies such as ZiO-Podolsk, Informtekh and Izhorskiye Zavody. The NPCIL has just confirmed officially (in its letter No. NPCIL/VSB/CPIO/2574/KKNPP/2013/737 dated April 29, 2013) that the controversial and corruption-ridden M/S ZiO Podolsk has supplied the following equipment and parts to the KKNPP: “Steam Generators, Cation and anion filters, Mechanical Filter, Moisture Separator and Reheater, Boric solution storage tanks, Regenerative blow down heat exchanger, Pipelines and fittings of different systems, Insulation materials, PHRS Heat exchanger.” In other words, the Koodankulam project in its entirety is unsafe and dangerous.

In February 2012, the procurement director, Mr. Sergei Shutov of Zio-Podolsk was arrested for buying low quality and cheap raw material, passing it off as more expensive grade and pocketing the difference. Another Russian court has convicted one Mr. Alexander Murach, Director of another notorious Russian company, Informtekh, for fraud and sentenced him to three years in prison for selling counterfeit measuring equipment for the Russian nuclear power plants’ turbines.

This technological horror is compounded by the moronic and imbecilic attitude and announcements of people from the Indian nuclear establishment and the Congress government in Delhi. The Indian nuclear industry’s gruesome Goebbels and Minister of State at the PMO, Mr. V. Narayanasamy, leads this pack with little understanding of how dangerous the Koodankulam project is and what is at stake for all Indians. The basic premise underneath all this recklessness is the little value they all attach to Indian lives.

Our friends have just filed an affidavit/application in the Indian Supreme Court about corruption and substandard reactor and equipment in KKNPP in connection with a pending case. But Mr. Narayanasamy has told the Rajya Sabha that the External Affairs Minister Mr. Salman Khurshid has conveyed to the Russian side that the first unit of the Kudankulam power project is at sub-critical stage and is expected to be commissioned “any day” in May.

Do these Congress Ministers in New Delhi know that reputed car companies, pet food manufacturers, tooth paste producers and toy makers have recalled their products just to respect human safety and well-being?

In October 2012 Toyota company recalled 7.4 million cars after discovering faulty window switches in 12 of its world-famous models. It was the biggest single recall since Ford had taken 8 million vehicles off the road in 1996 for a faulty ignition module. In November 2012 Toyota called back 2.8 million cars to fix faulty steering columns and water pumps.

On March 16, 2007, popular brands of pet food were withdrawn across the United States because of the presence of ‘melamine,’ an industrial chemical found in plastics and resins. In July 2007, the European Union’s RAPEX (rapid alert system) had alerted the member states’ governments to pull two brands of Chinese-made toothpaste, Spearmint and Trileaf Spearmint, from the European shelves because they contained ‘diethylene glycol,’ a constituent of anti-freeze. In August 2007, the world’s biggest toy company, Mattel, recalled millions of toys modeled on Sesame Street’s Big Bird and Elmo, and Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer because of high lead levels in the paint used.

Mr. Narayanasamy and his ilk should understand that bad luck and harsh justice befall those who put innocent people’s lives on harm’s way. On August 11, 2007, Zhang Shuhong, co-owner of the Lee Der Toy Company, that was a major supplier to Mattel, committed suicide at one of his factories. On July 10, 2007, China executed the former head of its food and drug administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, for dereliction of duty and taking 6.5 million Yuan (about US $ 850,000) in bribes from the manufacturers of substandard medicines that had been blamed for several deaths. The blabbering mouths should learn a few things from these incidents.

The PMANE demands a comprehensive, complete, independent inquiry into the financial and technical scams of the Koodankulam project, and the closure of the KKNPP in the larger interests of the people of India.

The Struggle Committee
People’s Movemenmt Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE)
Idinthakarai 627 104
Tirunelveli District
Email: koodankulam@yahoo.com

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 13 May 2013.

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