Many Serious Questions, One Devious Answer: S. P. Udayakumar wrote about the effect of the Tsunami of the Nuclear Power facilities in India pointing out how they were not as safe as they were made out to be and that there were major holes in the stories presented by the Indian government. In the first part, he presented a mock interview with the administration.

Ever since the tsunami killer waves pounded the coast of Tamil Nadu on December 26, 2004, the nuclear-literate in India have been very much worried about the radioactive repercussions in the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) at Kalpakkam, near Chennai. The “Ordinary Citizens” of India have many questions, concerns, anxieties, worries and fears but the “Advanced/Atomic Citizens” of India keep repeating the same answer. The conversation may go like this:

[1] OC: What happened when the tsunami waves hit the Atomic Energy Township of Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) at Kalpakkam, near Chennai?
AC: Nothing happened. [In fact, some 65 to 80 people got killed, more than thousand houses and apartments damaged in varying degrees, many walls and buildings collapsed leaving a trail of debris all over the campus, the heavy protection walls on the seashore simply disappeared without a trace, Sadras East area was in shambles, tons of sea sand dumped on the roads, and many trees wilted.]

[2] OC: What happened when the same ferocious waves pounded the MAPS nuclear reactor site a few kilometers down the same line?
AC: Nothing happened.

[3] OC: Were the nuclear waste storage plant and the reprocessing plant affected?
AC: Nothing happened.

[4] OC: I hear that the Kalpakkam Nuclear Power Station Casual Contract Laborers Federation leader is claiming that some 200 to 300 contract-laborers are missing after the tsunami?
AC: Nothing happened.

[5] OC: The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel who were supposed to safeguard the MAPS workers and secure the installations themselves lost a few people in their barracks. Do you think they functioned effectively in the wake of the disaster?
AC: Nothing happened.

[6] OC: When the waves hit MAPS and the township, you momentarily lost all contact with the government officials and the rest of the world as the telephone exchange was flooded. Some workers with mobile connections of private phone companies alone could call outside; is that right?
AC: Nothing happened.

[7] OC: On December 26, 2004, did MAPS look like a desolate place with no power, no phones, no water, no security arrangement, and no hindrance whatsoever for outsiders to enter any part of the plant?
AC: Nothing happened.

[8] OC: Were the foundation pits for the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactors (PFBR) inundated by the tsunami waters?
AC: Nothing happened.

[9] OC: Hundreds of construction workers are said to have been saved by a crane operator who had seen the rising seas and you had no mechanism whatsoever to alert your own workers or to safeguard them, right?
AC: Nothing happened.

[10] OC: What would happen if a future tsunami suddenly inundates the PFBR plants that will have liquid sodium as coolant?
AC Nothing will happen.

[11] OC: Besides some three thousand regular employees, you still employ more than thousand “glow slaves” (intentionally irradiated unwilling nuclear laborers) to keep the “undocumented radiation release” under cover, right?
AC: Nothing happened.

[12] OC: Why are your own workers approaching the Chennai High Court complaining that there is a serious lack of qualified technical personnel at critical positions of the MAPS reactors and alleging that such a trend compromises the safety of the plant and the workers and the general public?
AC: Nothing happened.

[13] OC: Why did the Prime Minister of India ask the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) chief Mr. Anil Kakodkar to stay put at Kalpakkam after the tsunami?
AC: Nothing happened.

[14] OC: Mr. Kakodkar spent so much time at the reactor sites but never visited the Township even to console his own workers and their families. Why this anti-people attitude?
AC: Nothing happened.

[15] OC: Why are people of Kalpakkam area still hush-hushing about a possible radiation leak?
AC: Nothing happened.

[16] OC: Why can’t you let a group of independent experts inspect the MAPS plants with radiation detection equipment?
AC: Nothing happened.

[17] OC: Why don’t you and the Government of India want the UN Secretary General visit Tamil Nadu? Is it because he and other aid agencies would catch the air of Kalpakkam developments?
AC: Nothing happened.

[18] OC: There are reports that some 15,000 families were removed from Kalpakkam on December 27, 2004 as a precautionary measure and the Indian Army was deployed to “protect” the plants from outside intrusions. Are they true?
AC: Nothing happened.

[19] OC: Why can’t you have a modicum of TAP (transparency, accountability and people’s participation) in your functioning and allay the legitimate fears of the Indian public in the wake of the tsunami disaster?
AC: Nothing happened.

[20] OC: How should we feel about the long-term threats of radioactive leaks?
AC: Nothing happened.

[21] OC: Why can’t we have an open and credible investigation of the precise extent of the consequences of the tsunami disaster?
AC: Nothing happened.
SACCER (South Asian Community Center for Education and Research)
promoting life-long, life-wide and life-deep education
S.P. Udayakumar, 42/27 Esankai Mani Veethy, Parakkai Road Jn,
Nagercoil 629 002, Tamil Nadu, India
Ph: 91-4652-240657/253295
Email: drspudayakumar@yahoo.com, spuk@vsnl.net

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