This accident raises some serious concerns which the local community and the larger civil society has been voicing for decades. The Uranium Corporation of India Limited(UCIL) functions in complete non-transparency and unaccountability. To cut costs, it compromises with safety measures and employs contractual workers routinely in dangerous work in brazen violation of standard norms.
CNDP Press Statement: Modi Govt Must Re-think Jaitapur Project After Massive Corruption in French Nuclear Sector
Prof Achin Vanaik, eminent intellectual and peace activist, speaking on the worsening security situation in South Asia and the escalating arms race in the region.
After 18 years of the nuclear tests, the security that the atomic weapons were supposed to bestow on us is conspicuously missing and South Asia is becoming more dangerous with each passing day. India has become the world’s largest arms importer, with a share of 14 per cent in the entire world’s weapons’ trade. Between 2006–10 and 2011–15, India’s weapons imports have grown by 90 per cent. Similarly, Pakistan’s defence budget has also seen a steep rise. Evidently, the claims of nuclear weapons supporters that these lethal weapons would bring security and stability to the region have proven to be untrue.
Residents from Fukushima, along with Japanese civil society activists, would be visiting India this week to share their stories. The life stories – full of struggle and resilience – of more than 100,000 people who continue to live away from their home, while the accident in the crippled reactors is still unfolding, are a testimony to the fact that nuclear disasters are humanely insurmountable, even in countries that are technologically most advanced.
