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Showing posts from March, 2012

Nuclear projects and the demise of common sense

I really really hope the nuclear power plant at Kudankulam never starts functioning. I know its wishful thinking at this stage, what with crores of rupees already pumped into the project. I don’t know why the community was so dormant while the plant was being setup, why didn't anyone create a furore during the initial groundwork phase? I guess, like me no one really knew the real dangers lurking behind this massive nuclear power undertaking, until Fukushima brought it to our notice… even today, almost a year after that mind boggling tsunami catastrophe, the people in Fukushima live in constant dread and anxiety. Of course, there is no physical manifestation of that fear yet, but we all know it’s only a matter of time. As in the cases of Chernobyl and   Three MileIsland , it is an undisputed fact that exposure to radiation causes cancer and after reading Siddhartha Mukherjees ’ award winning book The Emperor of All Maladies , the completely debilitating effects of cancer are rev