Beyond Nuclear and DiaNuke today issued a joint press release condemning a visit by Westinghouse executives to India this week. The bankrupt American company is desperate to retain a place in the collapsing nuclear power market and is taking advantage of an anti-democratic and conciliatory Indian government which attempts to silence and suppress protest while indulging in a nuclear shopping spree. Here are the opening paragraphs of our press release followed by a link to read more.
TAKOMA PARK, MD, February 6, 2018 --The bankrupt American nuclear company, Westinghouse, which has been offloaded by its parent company Toshiba as a disastrous financial liability, will send its executives to India this week in an attempt to resuscitate its planned six-reactor project in the village of Kovvada in Andhra Pradesh on the country’s eastern coast.
But, say two groups who are critics of the project, Westinghouse has no business preying upon communities in India by pushing its untested nuclear technology on an unwilling population. The Westinghouse nuclear project has been vehemently resisted by locals, who see it as a threat to their environment, health, livelihood and traditional lifestyle.
The financially destitute company wants to supply India with six 1,208 MW reactor units of its AP1000 design. But, the AP1000 design is untested and has run into regulatory issues, massive cost and time over-runs and serious safety questions in the US, UK, China and other countries.
“This project is an all-round disaster-in-the-making, as it threatens to destroy the fragile ecology of India’s eastern coast, and endanger the safety of people in densely populated areas,” said Kumar Sundaram of DiaNuke, an India-based international organization that looks at the interconnectedness between nuclear issues and other struggles for justice, equality, dignity, transparency and democracy.
“It will disenfranchise thousands of people in local communities by depriving them of traditional livelihoods and sustainable lifestyles which they have maintained for centuries,” he said.