Fuel to be loaded in Kudankulam N-plant reactor today

September 11, 2012 09:54

The loading of fuel at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant reactor is likely to take place on Tuesday.

In the first casualty in the year-long agitation against the Kudankulam nuclear power project, a fisherman was killed in police firing in Tuticorin on Monday even as protests at the plant site turned violent.

The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board in August gave clearance for fuel to be loaded into one of the Kudankulam plant's two reactors, one of the last steps before it can begin producing power.

India is struggling to meet surging demand for electricity and suffers from a peak-hour power deficit of about 12%, which has become a significant drag on the economy. A grid failure on two consecutive days this summer caused one of the world's worst blackouts.

First conceived in 1988, Russian-built Kudankulam was supposed to have gone into operation last year, but protesters surrounded the compound after an earthquake and tsunami hit Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, causing radiation leaks and forcing mass evacuations.

The protesters fear a similar accident could happen in south India, a region that was hard hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

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