Even as the protest against the commissioning of the nuclear power project at Koodankulam was revived by the local people on Tuesday, the plant is set to have a new chief, a senior engineer who grew up in the same district. R S Sundar, presently the station director of units I and II of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project, was promoted as the site director of the project, subsequent to the promotion of present director M Kasinath Balaji as the Executive Director (light water reactor operations).

MUMBAI: Now, India can build cheaper nuclear reactors, than even South Korea. Talking to TOI on the eve of his retirement, Dr Srikumar Banerjee, secretary in the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), said India can now manufacture nuclear reactors at $1,700 per unit. Come May, Banerjee will make way for Ratan Sinha, currently director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre ( BARC), who will take over as secretary, DAE.

Atomic Energy Commission chairman Srikumar Banerjee will commission the Rs. 1,106 crore uranium ore mine and processing plant set up by Uranium Corporation of India at Thummalapalle village in Vemula mandal in Kadapa district on Friday, April 20.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had cleared the uranium ore mining and processing plant at Thummapalle in August 2007 and then Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy laid foundation stone in November that year.

The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre has launched an awareness campaign to drive home the point that there is no risk of explosion associated with a nuclear power plant.

This comes in the wake of Nuclear Power Corpo-ration of India Limited’s plans to set up 20 mega-nuclear power plants in the country, including a “nuclear park” at Kovvada in Srikakulam district.

The five-member Empowered Committee (EC), headed by former Chief Justice of India A.S. Anand, on Monday finalised six chapters in the final report to be submitted to the Supreme Court on the safety of the Mullaperiyar dam.

Besides Justice Anand, other Members in the panel are: Justice K.T. Thomas, retired Supreme Court Judge representing Kerala; Justice A.R. Lakshmanan, retired Supreme Court Judge representing Tamil Nadu;

Bathinda: A nuclear physicist, Hardev Singh Vir, would be conducting an independent study on the source of uranium and to ascertain whether it is to blame for the high incidence of cancer cases in the area. For the study, Dr Virk has collected drinking water samples from several villages, including Bhagi Vandar, Jaga Ram Tirath, Jajjal, Giana and Malkana, in Talwandi Sabo block of the district.

Radiation and chemical-induced mutation and subsequent use in recombination breeding at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) has resulted in the release of 39 improved crop varieties in oilseeds and pulses in India, said Dr Ratan Kumar Sinha, Director, BARC, Mumbai.

With Lambapur-Peddagattu uranium mines in Nalgonda district next in line for excavation, nuclear physicists from Osmania University, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and Chaitanya Bharati Institute of Technology have established ‘baseline data’ for background radiation in villages in this uranium-rich belt near Nagarjunasagar reservoir.

The expert team has found that mean radiation levels in the area are relatively high when compared to national and international averages.

The fact that ground water in Malwa, a southern area of Punjab, has traces of uranium in its ground water was established even in the past. A recent report presented by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (Barc) to the Punjab and Haryana high court has re-established this fact.

The Shiv Sena on Monday did not allow the city-based Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) — funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) — to hold discussion on the Jaitapur nuclear power plant project during its Science Day celebrations. It forced ARI to give in writing that there will be “no talk” on the power plant and did not allow eminent scientist Anil Kakodkar to speak on the issue.