The Madras High Court has dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed in 2017 against the first pour of concrete for units 3 and 4 of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) without complying with norms on restricting the population growth in the sterilized zone — the area within a 5-km radius of the plant.
Chief Justice S.V. Gangapurwala and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu rejected the plea filed by environmental activist G. Sundarrajan, who had insisted that norms 5 and 6, found in the annexure to the Siting Consent granted by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) on February 9, 2011, must be followed in letter and in spirit before pouring the first concrete.
However, senior counsel Krishna Srinivasan, representing the Chairman and Managing Director of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) as well as the Site Director of KKNPP, told the court that his clients had ensured that no public habitation was permitted in the ‘exclusion zone’ located within a 2-km radius of the reactor buildings.
