Imperative to ensure foolproof security of nuclear plants: Manmohan Singh

New Delhi, May 16 (ANI): Stressing on the need to have nuclear power plants, the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, on Wednesday said that it was imperative to ensure safety of such vital installations.

"We must do everything to ensure complete safety of our nuclear power plants. We must keep the option of nuclear power as an additional source of power. Not in the interest of the country to give up the option of nuclear power," Dr. Singh told the Lok Sabha.

Dr. Singh said that after the Fukushima incident, the safety and security of all the nuclear power plants were revisited.

"We have 19 functional reactors and there has never been any accident. After Fukushima, I ordered a complete revisit to all the reactors and those reports are on the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) website," he added

Asserting that India must keep the option of nuclear power as an additional source of power, Dr. Singh said: "We are not in a situation like Japan, where large amount of power comes from nuclear plants ... France also has large number of nuclear power plants."

The nuclear plant has become the epicentre of a wave of heated protest, with environmental activists and agitators voicing their ire at government's apathy towards the dangers posed by nuclear energy.

In order to end the logjam, the central government had set up an expert panel to visit the project site and put to rest the fears of local villagers vis-a-vis the efficiency of safety mechanisms installed at the plant.

Established in a joint collaboration between India and Russia, the Koodankulam nuclear power project envisages to build two 1,000 MW VVER type reactors by end of December 2011.

However, in the wake of the Fukushima incident, several nuclear projects across India, such as the one at Jaitapur in Maharashtra, have run into rough weather as protesting locals and activists argue that such plants could adversely affect the environment.

India has a total installed power generation capacity of 164 gigawatts (GW) and aims to raise it to 187 GW by the end of March 2012. There are 20 reactors in operation in six power plants, generating over 4,000 megawatts of electricity while five other plants are under construction. (ANI)